


Under Pressure

by FyreArcana



Series: See You At The Station... [2]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Romantic Friendship, Slow Build, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:47:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 64,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26736124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FyreArcana/pseuds/FyreArcana
Summary: Six months after the Equalists Revolution, tensions start to rise in the South Pole with the water tribes. Friendships and relationships are put to the test when trust is questioned. How will you and Lin find some ground as you try to set some foundation to your new sort of relationship. Can you handle Lin or will you hesitate and lose patience.This goes along season two of TLOK it contains scenes and dialog from the animated series.
Relationships: Lin Beifong/Original Female Character(s), Lin Beifong/Reader
Series: See You At The Station... [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1945909
Comments: 110
Kudos: 179





	1. Six Months Later

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, so I finally got the courage and start to write a continuation of Under Pressure. Hopefully it's just as good as the first, it will continue along the storyline of Book 2. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Update: So while writing this story I realized that this one should have been titled Under Pressure since there was had more of that and the first story should be called Hesitate instead. 
> 
> Just to clarify and not cause any confusion lol

You and Mako are chasing a robbery chase, thanks to Asami she gifted some cycles to the police force. I on the other hand, kept mine and just upgraded it to the latest model with detachable sirens. Both of you are gaining on the large truck when the culprits start water bending at us and one freezes the street. 

“Mako watch out for the ice!” You yell out, you drive over towards the sidewalks while Mako keeps driving head into the ice. He starts to skid and quickly fire bends, melting the ice and gains control of his bike. Another trucker pulls into the street and comes out, you take the ramp and jump out the way. Mako follows and uses his fire to give him a boost, does a flip and sends a ball of fire towards the truck causing it to flip on its side. You and Mako make an abrupt stop and unmount your bikes looking at the guys knocked out. “Looks like you have some car trouble…good thing the police are here” Mako smugly says as he takes his helmet off. You take your helmet off and groan at his comment, putting your head down smacking your face. Mako looks over at you and shrugs “what?” You roll your eyes and annoyingly walk over towards the perps “nothing, let’s just call a squad car and get these guys to bookings.” You climb into the truck and check out the stuff they robbed, “pretty nice stuff, I can see why they were in such a hurry.” You quickly jump back out the truck as a squad car comes pulling up and two officers come to arrest the perps. You walk over to your bike and put your helmet back on “alright well, see you back at the station,” before Mako can even get a word in you speed off in the direction to headquarters and you look in your rearview mirror and see Mako grudgingly getting back on his bike. You scoff muttering nonsense under your breath as you ride down the streets of Republic City.

*

You park your bike and head up to the desks and head towards your desk and start getting ready writing the report on the recent arrest. Lin walks out her office and notices you “See you’re back y/n, where’s Mako?” she looked around nothing seeing Mako around. “You did come back with him right?? She eyes you raising her eyebrows. You roll your eyes and cross your arm, “he wasn’t far behind, last I checked” you muttered. Lin groans as she pinches the bridge of her nose, “Mako is under your watch as your shadow, y/n. When I reinstated as Chief of Police I promoted y/n as Lieutenant and you as officer because of your work on Amon and the triads.” You sighed and push your chair back then look up at Lin “I get that, chief, but it’s taking some getting used to. Plus, doesn’t help when he’s annoying” you mutter as you bring your arms up on the desk and rub the sides of your temple. Before Lin can add anymore Mako comes in a huff as he runs up the stairs then stops when he sees Lin, “Chief!” he gave her a salute. Lin rolled her eyes “Where were you? Taking the scenic route back to the station?” she glared at him. “uh, no chief…I…” he looked over at me and I gave him a shrug nonchalantly. You found it entertaining to see Mako sweat but then Lin gives you a look and you sigh before standing up “he was just making sure the criminals were secured in the squad car and escorting them back to the station, isn’t that right Mako” you look at him raising your eyebrow to him. Mako gains his composure and relaxes a little from the save “right, I did that, y/n went ahead to get a jump on the report.” He stood at attention. Lin just glanced at the both of you before she turned away and went back to her office, you catch her just simply shaking her head before she closed her door. You look over at Mako, “took you long enough, I thought you would’ve wet your pants” you stifle a laugh. Mako gets red in his face “hey, you didn’t have to leave me behind. If it wasn’t for me we would still be chasing those guys” he is getting angry. You huff and cross your arms again “oh please, you mean that little showboating stunt you did? Sure let’s praise Little Mako on that” you annoyingly mutter as you give him a fake round of applause. You and Mako bicker at each other but stop right when you hear the click of a door opening from Lin’s office both of your eyes dart to that direction, “If you bickering dumb-nuts don’t have that report on my desk in the next half hour, you don’t even want me to finish that sentence.” Lin barked out from her desk before she metal bended her door slammed shut. You looked at Mako and gave him a shove before you head back to your desk and quickly finish the report then gave it to Mako to read it over and sign it. Mako still afraid of Lin makes you go walk over to drop off the report and you roll your eyes and grab the papers from his hands and walk over. You knock on the door and wait for Lin to let you in and you open the door and walk inside, closing the door behind you. Lin looks at you and sighs as she puts down her glasses, “is that the report?” she eyes the papers in your hand. You nod “yup, even Mako had to put his hand into the report so it’s good.” You handed it to her, and Lin set it aside. She pushes herself back from her desk and turned her attention to you. “is this going to be a constant problem between the both of you? She gave you a knowing look. You lean against her desk and sigh before you open your mouth to speak you stop and ask, “Wait am I talking to Chief Beifong or Lin?” she blinks blankly at you then responds “Chief Beifong, since we’re at work…” you sit up straight and shrug “then, no, there won’t be any problems. take time to get used to Mako as a colleague, is all.” You start to walk towards the door and put your hand on the door handle, Lin speaks again “You can talk to Lin, after work though?” you smile softly before you erase it from your lips and walk out the office.

After work you and Mako walk out the station together, he is the first to speak up breaking the silence, “can we please sort whatever issues or problems we have with each other. I hate getting in trouble with the Chief” He rubs the back of his neck feeling embarrassed. “really? I quite find it funny and entertaining watching you get your ass chewed out by Chief Beifong.” You smile looking down at the sidewalk as you guys walk. Mako stops and looks at you, getting annoyed “come on, what’s your problem, y/n. I’m trying to be a good partner.” You sigh annoyingly “You’re not my partner, Mako. You’re just shadowing me…wow, Men are really stupid, huh? Look….” You rub your face as you try to gather your thoughts before you guide Mako to keep walking beside you as you start to speak “you are great cop and I think you got the skills to become Detective, after I got promoted to Lieutenant Li—Chief told me she wanted to take you on as Detective depending on your work in the force. I’ll admit I was jealous because I’ve been at the force for about a couple months to a year and here is some rookie off the streets and he gets the prospect of the position right off the bat, but I admit the way you worked during the whole Amon situation and then your work with the Triads. It was a no brainer that your talents and skills would be better suited on the force as than to let the triads have you.” You look over at him as you both take a seat at a bench at a nearby park. “okay, so if you agreed with the Chief on hiring me then why have you been so cold. I thought we worked well together when fighting Amon.” You nodded agreeing with him “yes, we did work well together, and I think we still work well together as fighting partners now. It’s just… personal reasons to why I don’t like you, which is bad since I always try not to bring personal matters into my work.” You sigh deeply. Mako listening at your works and trying to understand “ok, so what personal stuff you have against me?” you look at him like you really want to give him a slap. “ugh Mako, you’re just so…. annoying! I know everything is fine between you and Asami and you and Korra are good, but I can’t help but say that the way you handled that whole thing was complete trash. You literally closed the door on Asami walked two steps across and opened the door for Korra. You gave yourself no buffer, no time for a breakup. You literally jumped from one relationship to another relationship before the breakup could even be processed.” Mako tries to say something but you keep talking “…and don’t get me started on how you are at work, you act like you’re Mr. Hotshot. Trying to look cool and coming up with these horrible catch phrases for whenever we arrest criminals. Like it’s sort of embarrassing on my part to see my shadow do that. It’s probably just from the excitement of a new job and catching criminals and feeling important in the city that has you acting like this. But yeah that’s my problem” you inhale deeply and exhale you feel surprisingly light and like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders. “heh, you were right, I didn’t think talking with you would work, but sorting out our problems was good” you look at Mako and smile feeling loads better. Mako just looks at you surprised with her jaw dropped on the floor. “uhhh Mako, you wanted to tell me something?” you squint your eyes at him, he has yet to respond you give him a light tap on his cheek. That seemed wake him up “huh, what? No I’m good. Nice talk. Glad we sorted that all out.” He stretched his arms out then stood up. You followed standing up, “alright, so friends? For real this time” you extend your hand over to Mako. He looks at you then down at your hand and takes your hand “yeah, friends.” You both give each other a smile then you pat his back “maybe when you become Lieutenant, we’ll be partners” you wave each other off as you walk in opposite directions.

*

You look around as you push your cycle into the nearby alley and grab a tarp covering it. You bend your cables and pull yourself up onto the terrace and softly knock on the door. The door clicks open and you step inside closing it behind you then walk throughout the apartment. You look up at the clock, midnight and walk into the kitchen and see Lin drinking some tea. You take your jacket off and set it on the coat hanger, “hey…” you walk over to the kitchen and sit beside her. “you seem in better spirits” Lin mutters while she reads her book. You smile softly “yeah well I spoke to Mako about our work relationship and worked things out. So there shouldn’t be any more problems at the station.” You sigh as you pour yourself a bit of tea, “well that’s good. You both were bickering like children.” Lin flips a page from her book as she continues reading but active listening to you. You don’t really mind it and you sit back down as you inhale deeply “I know…it was embarrassing. I bet that wasn’t my most attractive moments” you groan while you rubbed your face, “the important thing is that now you don’t have to listen to any more of my vents on the problem.” You smile and motion your hands as if you’re washing away all the negative vibes away from your body. “hmm oh no…I’ll miss those talks” she deadpans you eye her and mocking tone “you got anything stronger than tea?” Lin raises an eyebrow then stands and sets down a glass with a large piece of ice in front of you and pours you some whiskey. “thanks” you mutter and take a small swig. Lin pours herself a glass before you start a conversation “Mako mentioned that he and Bolin are going to join Korra for the Glacier Spirits Festival in the Southern Water Tribe. Maybe we should go, you know like a little trip…” you mutter softly and listen intently to hear if Lin would respond, “I don’t know, I have so much to do in Republic City. I can’t drop everything for some festival.” You nod softly, “I understand, but I do have to go anyways to the Southern Water Tribe with Asami, she was able to get a sit down with Varrick. I figured I’ll go and help out on that business meeting.” Lin looks at you with a bit of conflict “you have to go?” you smile and give her a nod “yeah, ever since the whole ordeal with Hiroshi Sato, Asami has taken over the company. I offered to help out as much I can, designing her new projects and any ideas to bring Future Industries back on the market. but, more and more businesses are pulling out of their partnerships. I don’t know how much more Future can withstand before Asami has to call for bankruptcy.” You sigh deeply as look down but then look back at Lin’s eyes “I sent the report to one of the lead financial advisors, they’re going to talk to Asami tomorrow after her test run on the planes.” Lin looks at you in thought but softly nods, understanding your reasons, “Are you traveling with Korra and Mako?” you shake your head “No, I’m going to ride with Asami, we’re only going for the weekend.” You smile as you reach over and place your hand on top of hers “you know if you’re going to miss me you can just join me.” you smirk as you slowly lean in closer to her. Lin gives you a small smile “you already know why I can’t.” you chuckle a bit “I know but it wouldn’t hurt to try.” You remove your hand from Lin as you finish your second glass of whiskey and start to get up and grab your jacket, “I should start heading out.” You state as you slide your jacket on, you don’t notice the face of conflict appear on Lin. You pop your collar and look over at Lin giving her a small smile, while looking at her you remember what has happened between the two of you.

_Ever since you shared your first kiss; things haven’t been the same, but it hasn’t progressed either. Mostly, because of Lin’s refraining, you began to think it was her maybe confused with her emotions or believed her when she mentioned she wasn’t thinking straight during her vulnerable time. So, you never pushed further even after your little test in the kitchen. You know Lin has some sort of deeper feelings for you, but you’re not going to pressure her into something she doesn’t want, but you’re also not going to give up on her. If anything the both of you have become better friends, you hang out at her place mostly every night after work, share a drink or talk. There have been nights where you’ll spend the night on her bed, sometimes because you’re too drunk to get home. After a couple weeks you started to get suspicious that maybe Lin would get you inebriated so you’ll have to spend the night. You always tried to sleep on the couch, but she’ll keep telling you basically give you an order as chief to sleep on the bed. Saying along the lines to “always be well rested for work. I won’t stand you being tired on the job”. You’ll both end up waking up in each other’s arms or spooning one another. Maybe she likes having a warm body to sleep next to or maybe it has something to do with those nightmares she keeps having?_

So tonight you try not to drink more than the two glasses of whiskey. You clear your throat as you walk over and place your glass in the sink then turn to head “I’ll catch you at the station” as you walk toward the door. “uh-you can stay the night, since you’ve been drinking…” Lin muttered as she got up from the table scooting the chair back under the table. You laugh a bit “come on Lin, I’ve only had two glasses. You and I both know it takes more than that to get an effect on me” you slide your hands into your pockets sliding your right hand out to take your keys out. You turn around to grab the door and start turning the knob “y/n….” her voice soft causing your hand stops turning the knob, it’s just resting there your body standing still. “yes, Lin?” you responded back. “stay…please” You’re eyes widen at her request; she’s never asked you to stay it’s always been these little situations with alcohol or sleep deprivation. You’re perfectly fine to make it home so now Lin had no reason but to ask for you to stay. Should you press her to why the sudden question or just give in. There is no denying the emotions between the two of you and you’ve exchanged a few kisses and make outs since that time at the south pole. _But it’s been only that just kisses, nothing more, and you’re not sure if anything more will happen. You care for Lin, deeply._ You grip on the knob before you let go and turn around to look at her, “how come?” you look at the floor before looking up and look at her jaded eyes. Your eyes open more as you see the slight fear appearing in her eyes, but she is quick to hide it again, “you’ve been drinking and it’s getting late” you smirk and chuckle at her lame excuse “ok, but only if you give me a ride to Sato airstrip” Lin seemed relieved and nodded.

So I stayed.


	2. Spirits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You go to the South Pole to help Asami with a possible deal with Varrick and come across from dark spirits.

You hold on Lin’s waist as she drives on your cycle dropping you off the to the airstrip. You unmount from the cycle and smile, “you should change from your sato-mobile to a cycle, you look way sexier on it” you smirk as you flirt and see Lin’s cheeks redden “stop it, y/n.” she whispers at you. You look around and laugh “no one is around, they’re setting up the plane, I appreciate you dropping me off before work.” She groaned “don’t mention it”

“I’ll see you when I come back” you whisper softly as you cup her cheek then look around and steel a kiss, she leans in and kisses you back before you pull away, “be safe” she mutters as she looks at you and you nod, “always, don’t stress too much” you slowly pull back as Lin drives off but not before giving you another glance.

You walk over and see Asami walk up to you and gives you a knowing look, “so you and Chief seem to be getting along well” she smiles, you give her a knowing smirk and brush her off, “we’re just friends, Sami.” “sure, is that what you’re calling it?” she laughs as you pack your bag into the under compartment of the plane. You lean against the plan and groan “I don’t know what’s happening. The past six months we practically spend most of our time outside of work together. I even sleep over most nights even last night” You rambled then stopped “I- you didn’t hear that” look over at her and see Asami give you a surprised face “you and the chief, you’ve…?” she stammered, and you cross your arms “What?! No! I literally slept over…. I mean we were in the same bed, but all we did was sleep. Nothing else. I swear.” You huffed then rub your face “it’s just I never felt this way for anyone before. I’ve had romances before sure, but no one like Lin.” You sigh “well, have you spoken to Beifong about it?” she looks at you as she leans back on the plane beside you. You deadpan at her “Have you met Lin; she isn’t really the talking type.” You both exchange soft laughs “well enough about my love life or whatever kind of life that is…when are we taking off?” you change the subject

“soon, we’re just making sure we have enough fuel to make the round trip and that everything is working perfectly.”

*

You and Asami reach down to the Southern Water Tribe and get settled into a hut Korra arranged for the both of you. Later in the night you girls check out the Glacier Spirits Festival, “you think we’ll run into them?” you look over at Asami while you check out the games. “Probably, I mean I have no problem with it. I asked Bolin to accompany us to the meeting with Varrick.” You look at Asami confused “Bolin? Cute and clumsy Bolin. Mako’s brother Bolin?” you laugh softly “sure, if you think he can help secure this deal with Varrick” you grab some food and munch on it a bit.

After checking out the festival you end up bumping into the rest of Team Avatar. “oh hey…. guys” you wave at them, you see Korra and Mako being all into each other as a couple. You’re glad for Korra but still have some reservations with Mako, but after your talk with him you decide not to let it go. “Oh hey girls!” Bolin exclaims cheerfully after stuffing his mouth with an artic hen. “so I’m we hoped to run into you guys, well with Bolin. You ready to go to that meeting?” You look at Bolin and give an awkward smile. Bolin gulps trying to eat the hen in one go before patting his stomach, “yeah let’s go” the three of you wave at the couple and walk in the opposite direction towards one of the docks. Looking for Varrick’s private yacht.

“I’m glad you guys came with me to this meeting. Varrick is one of the richest men in the world, and he controls the entire global shipping business. So you guys can be my assistant and advisor. Just stand back and don’t say anything. I can handle this.” You nod understanding the plan and look at Bolin hoping he won’t say or do anything stupid. “no problem, Pabu and I are natural assistants” he rests assured and you sigh while you follow Bolin up towards the yacht. You three watch as Varrick is in the middle of the floor in a deep concentration while his assistant is writing down notes and a couple dozen people are just staring intently. You wonder what is going on until Varrick opens his eyes and exclaims, “did you see that! Levitation! I was a foot off the ground.” You look around confused as you watch the other business folk clapping encouraging him. _I guess whatever you have to do to get in Varrick’s good graces_ , you think as you and Asami join in on the clapping. Bolin continues looking at Varrick confused then opens his mouth to say, “it looked like you were just sitting on a pillow.” You and Asami’s eyes widen while she gasps, and you lower your head in shame as you groan putting your hand in your face. _Shit Bolin you just had to say something._ You hear as everyone else in the room gasps as well looking at the back of the room where you three stands. Varrick eyes Bolin and stands up stomping towards him and you look between Varrick and Bolin, “are you saying I wasn’t levitating?” he leans over Bolin intimidating. Bolin looks scared as he lets a loud gulp go down his throat. “um, no?”. Varrick turns around and yells at the group in the room, “well why didn’t anyone tell me? Now I look like an idiot. Swami you’re fired!” you’re taken back and watch as the older man bows out the room and look back at Varrick as he grabs Bolin by the shoulder. “I like you kid. You’re a real straight shooter, just like me.” he points at Bolin’s chest then turns over to Asami “Ms. Sato? He’s with you?” Asami nods and sighs as Varrick smiles “brought your tiger-shark with you to do business, huh. Now that’s moxie?” you laugh awkwardly “there’s no other way to do business, sir” you and Asami walk after Varrick and Bolin. “oh please just call me Varrick, no sir, I’m not old. I pay good money to prevent that sort of thing.” He pushes Bolin down on a pillow “get over here and pop a squat. Zhu Li, get some tea for my guests.” You sit down as Zhu Li hurryingly brings over a tray with various teas for Bolin while Asami starts with her business talk, “thank you for meeting with me. As you know, Future Industries is looking for a partner to handle our shipping—” Varrick cuts her off “sure. But first, you gotta check out my new venture: Moving Pictures. Zhu Li, do the thing.” He orders Zhu Li who is still tending to Bolin on the tea. She shoves the tray at Bolin and runs over to the projector. You look at the wall as you watch a series of pictures show up giving the illusion as it’s running in place in front of you. “wow” you mutter under your breath. “mind blowing right?” Varrick looks at the three of you “yeah!” Bolin exclaims before Varrick jumps in “Forget that! That’s the past! Shut it off, Zhu Li!” he barks at his assistant. “Imagine watching this” he motions for a young woman with bright red hair to come forward. “Ginger, come over here and do your poses.” You have to agree with Bolin that she is quite the looker. Her hair really makes her exotic. Varrick further explains his ideas on these moving pictures before he explains they are going to be called movers for short. You look at Asami wondering if this is normal with business deals with Varrick. He seems to just be talking to Bolin instead of Asami, Asami speaks up confused “okay, but I’m just concentrating on getting Future Industries back on track. If we could hammer out a deal--” Varrick puts his hand up to stop Asami and tells her to look him in the eye. You’re there sitting right in front of their stare down, just confused on this whole meeting. You watch Asami stare him down not blinking and standing her ground. Varrick smiles and screams out “We got a deal!” you let go of a breath you didn’t know you were keeping, and sigh then get up and smile. Varrick proceeds to shake Asami’s hand “we’ll hammer out the details at the Royal Feast tonight.” You watch as Varrick exclaims if anyone wants to take a ride on his rocket boat and everyone hurries out the room. You watch them leave “that was interesting…” Bolin joins in “is that how business usually goes?” Asami turns and gives Bolin a big hug then ruffles his hair “you are a natural assistant.” You laugh and give him a pat in the back “yeah, you did great Bolin!” you smile.

*

You take a seat besides Asami at Varrick’s table where you are joined by Ginger, Mako, Bolin and Zhu Li at the Royal Feast. You finish eating when you take a sip of water looking back at Tenzin and his family. Your eyes catch the waterbender sitting next to him then look at Bolin “hey Bolin, do you happen to know who that waterbender that’s sitting next to Tenzin?” you whisper over to him. “oh that’s Kya, Tenzin’s older sister. She lives here in the southern water tribe with Master Katara.” You slowly nod as you hear the information and eye the waterbender “Kya…” you whisper under your breath. You have the feeling you might have met her before, she gives you a sense of familiarity, but you look back at your table. _Maybe it’s nothing_. Your attention is back at the northern water chief as he gives his speech. He voices his concerns on how the south are handling the respects towards the spirits and hope it can be turned around. His concerns cause the crowd to murmur and wonder what’s going on before Varrick tries to defuse the tension by bringing in an otter-penguin show. You wonder what that speech was about, maybe Korra will know.

*

You and Asami break away from the rest of Team Avatar and check out the different booths. “I don’t know what Unalaq is talking about. The festival seems like a nice thing, but I guess if it’s a problem with the spirits then there must be some way to calm their anger” you mutter as you try to knock down some cans. Asami agrees then you guys continue walking around until you meet up with the team again.

*

As everyone gets ready for bed, you guys get together and talk about how Korra is feeling being back home. She’s happy to see her parents but is annoyed at her father after learning the truth of some things. “My dad and Tenzin were the ones to keep me cooped up in that compound not Aang. Then Unalaq offered to train me. He says he can teach me about the spirits and my connection to them.” You look at Korra and smile “that’s great! Doesn’t help to work on your spiritual connection especially since he says they are angry for some reason, but what does Tenzin think about this?” you look at her as your eyebrows furrow. Mako mutters “don’t mention Tenzin” but it’s too late Korra sighs annoyed and rolls her eyes “Tenzin treats me like one of his kids. Air bending training is boring and taking too long. I’ll never finish training if I stay with him.” She groans. “I get what you’re saying but it takes time to master an element. You just unlocked air bending and you made great improvement. I’m sure Tenzin is just looking out what’s best for you. He's just trying to help you as the mentor he is.” You try to calmly speak to her. Korra groans and pulls her knees up “but you heard what Unalaq said! The south is spiritually unbalanced and it’s the Avatar’s job to fix it, and my dad won’t let me even think about Unalaq teaching me.” she sounds defeated already. You frown “well your father has his reasons as to why not, but like you said it’s the Avatar’s job to restore peace and fix the unbalance between humans and spirits. If you feel like Unalaq can better help you in your spiritual training then maybe it might be a good idea? Maybe try talking to Tenzin about it first, not as Korra and Tenzin but as mentor and mentee.” You put your hand on her shoulder as you try to give her some advice.

Soon everyone heads to their respective huts and turn in for the night. You’re in a deep sleep before you hear loud howling that sounds like Naga. You wake up and rub your eyes “what the flameo is Naga howling at now?” you mutter as you get up from your bed, grabbing your coat and walk outside. You rub the back of your neck running your hand through your hair as you look in the direction of the howling. You see movement ahead of Naga and Korra and your eyes widen as you see a dark spirit coming from the snow. “what…” you watch it quickly turn around having seen Korra and in a blink of an eye you watch it sprint to her and hit Korra sending her back. “Korra!” you yell out as you start running over to her. The spirit has Korra in its grasp pinned against a snowed wall of earth. It’s so close to hurt Korra that you metal bend your cable smacking the spirit on its head, “Hey! Back off our friend!” you yell at it as Mako and Bolin fire and earth bend at it. Bolin creates a wall between the spirit and Korra giving her a chance to escape. The three of you watch this spirit moving too quickly for either of you to land a shot. It swings its large tail at you three and knocks you guys to the ground, groaning as you hit and roll down the ground. Tenzin and Tonraq run out of their hits and help you guys get up, you wrap your arm around your stomach as your groan softly, “it’s a dark spirit, it’s attacking Korra up the mountain” you point in the direction. Tenzin and Tonraq run after to assist Korra, you gain up your strength and ready to head back to help Korra when you see Tenzin hurling back in your direction getting hit by the spirit. You help Tenzin back up “you okay?” he nods and looks at the spirit “we must find out why that spirit it angry with us. Fighting it will only make it worse.” You nod understandingly before Mako points in the direction Korra is in “well it’s going to Korra and she’s about to fight it.” The four of you run down the mountainside as you watch Korra and the spirit battle it out. Korra gets thrown into a booth right when you arrive you watch as Unalaq starts bending on the spirit. It seems to be calming the spirit no longer in a hostile manner. The water starts to illuminate in a bright yellow light that you cover your eyes while you walk up to the scene and stop as you watch that the spirit is become illuminated. “woah…” you watch the scene play out and watch the spirit walk away and soon it seems to dissipate. You look back towards Korra and run towards her, but you stop with the rest of the group when you see Korra in a heated discussion with her dad, Tenzin and Unalaq. Soon Tenzin returns with a hint of sadness which means Korra has made her decision.

*

You stand next to the guys and Asami while you watch Tenzin packing up the rest of his things while his family are settling down on Oogi. You can’t help but feel sort of sad of the situation you cross your arms as you warm yourself up. You watch Oogi fly away with the family and you sigh looking down before you climb up the plane. You and Asami fly your way back to Republic City.

*

You settle your bag down quietly as you make your way through the apartment and tiptoe into the bedroom. You weren’t sure why you had to come here right when you came back, you guess to surprise her or check up on how she’s doing. There she is. Lin is sleeping; you change into your sleepwear and slide into bed wrapping your arm around her and softly kiss her shoulder. Lin stirs a bit then settles back down before she mumbles “you’re back”. You smile hearing her voice again and kiss the back of her shoulder again “I couldn’t wait until morning to see you. I hope it’s okay” you whisper. “I wouldn’t expect you to do anything less” she mumbles as she takes your hand in hers like that night you spent together back in the southern compound. You feel like you’re back to where you belong, whether it’s this confusing are you or aren’t you dating or courting. You lay there and admire the woman next to you, as she sinks into you and settles back to sleep. Your mind wanders back to what happened between Korra and Tenzin, you understand where Korra is coming from. You’re just hoping that she made the right decision at the right time.


	3. The Chief and I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's just you and the Chief left in the Republic City. The rest of Team Avatar are still at the South Pole. You and Lin try to spend some time to yourselves without any prying eyes from the team.

Work was tiring and long, long stakeouts waiting for any information on the different triads and trying to catch some tips. You decided to do your usual after a tired day of work and head over to the park sitting at your usual tree. It had become your spot since you’ve moved to the city. It was the one spot that you could find tranquility and a place to escape from the busy city and the stress from working at a police department. Your mind is spaced out while you watch the water clash taking in the noise when you hear a voice calling out to you, “y/n, figured I’ll find you here”. You look down as you rub your eyes waking yourself up and look at the chief of police, “well you found me” you give her a smile “figured you’ll still be in the office for a couple more hours, chief” you pat a spot beside you and Lin takes a seat next to you. You lean back on the tree and continue looking out towards the water, “heard you got beat up pretty hard back at that bust with the Agni Kais” Lin looked over. You groan and rubbed the back of my neck “it’s nothing, we got told the wrong information. I’m just glad everyone was able to make it out in one piece, but it just proves I’m getting closer to busting them” you glare out to the water with determination in your eyes. Lin put her hand on your shoulder then got up “come on, how about we get some food. Tomorrow is another day.” You laughed a bit as you get up and dust yourself off as you walk beside Lin.

*

You and Lin eat some dinner out on Lin’s terrace enjoying the view of the city. “I can’t believe this view alone doesn’t push you to come home faster. This is incredible.” You smile as you relax leaning against the railing, Lin gives you a soft laugh as she shakes her head in disagreement “you never told me what happened in your trip” Lin speaks as she cleans up after dinner and sets down some tea on the outdoor table. “oh right, with helping Asami with the deal with Varrick and the triads. I haven’t told you..” you walk back to the outdoor furniture and take a seat and motion Lin to follow. “the trip was an overall success… Bolin actually accompany us to the meeting with Varrick and he surprisingly was a nice asset to the team.” You mention while you take a sip of your tea. Lin raises her eyebrow confused “Really, Bolin? The idiot brother of Mako?” You chuckle and look at Lin, “yes, Varrick took an interest in Bolin, explained this whole idea on moving pictures “movers” is what he calls them.” Lin groans annoyed by the mention of Bolin, but you can’t help but laugh. “Everything was fine until we ran into Korra and Mako. Korra had mentioned how the Northern water tribe chief, Unalaq, wants to train Korra spiritually.”

“but isn’t that Tenzin’s job to train the Avatar with her airbending and spiritual connection” Lin interrupts you.

“yes you’re right. Which apparently caused some tension between Korra, Tonraq and Tenzin. Unalaq was commenting that the spirituality the South once had was dissolving, as evidenced by the fact that ships in the South were being attacked by angry spirits due to this change. Korra didn’t have any idea about the attacks, Unalaq was surprised and offered to become her spiritual mentor, but Tonraq turned him down, who declared Tenzin was all that Korra needed. It didn’t help when Unalaq confessed that every Avatar before Korra had traveled the world to learn, but she was denied that opportunity by her father and Tenzin's decision to keep her secluded at the Southern Water Tribe compound. Something that Korra thought was the decision from Avatar Aang. Which further caused Korra to be mad at Tonraq and Tenzin. Later that night after we’ve gone to bed we got attacked by a dark spirit. We all tried to defeat or calm down the spirit but to no avail, Unalaq interfered and performed a complex waterbending maneuver that instantly calmed the spirit down, basking it in this golden light, and eventually caused the entity to disappear peacefully. He offered to teach her again. When Tenzin stated that he planned to journey to all the air temples with Korra, Unalaq promptly dismissed the idea as useless, as he believed only he could provide Korra with the training she needed to become a complete Avatar. Korra believes in Unalaq and accepted his offer causing Tenzin to no longer be in her service and the following morning he and his family packed up and continued on with their trip to the air temples.” You sighed once you finished and took another sip from your tea. “hmm I see, that unfortunate” Lin looked down. “yeah…I’m not sure how to take on Korra’s decision. I understand where she is coming from, she just wants to be the best. Unalaq was the only one to stop that spirit so it seems understandable for Korra to learn from him, but it wasn’t nice to see Tenzin upset.” You frowned but Lin groaned softly “Tenzin will be fine. Korra is the Avatar not one of his kids. She is doing what she thinks is best as the Avatar.”

“yeah you’re right, maybe this is what’s best. Korra gets to learn about spirits and Tenzin gets to relax and have a vacation.” You mutter, Lin scoffs “Tenzin? Relax? I would pay to see that. Tenzin is never relaxed. Always acts like there’s a stick up his ass.” Both of you laugh a bit. After the talk it was getting later than you hoped and you both started to step inside. You helped Lin with cleaning up while she protested, you just smiled and kept cleaning. You gathered your jacket to head out before Lin grabs your arm, your ear perks up and you turn around, “yes?” you softly speak to her. “I uh…wanted to ask if you wanted to…” Lin struggled to get her words out, but you waited patiently not wanting for her to shut down, you reached down and take her hand. “can you stay the night…with me?” she looks down before glancing up at you. You softly nod “yeah sure” you breathe out letting out a breath you didn’t realize you were holding in.

*

Getting settled in for bed, you’re lying on one side while Lin is showering. You decide to grab the newspaper and read some of the news stories and crimes happening around the city. **_‘Triads crimes rising in the city. Police doing nothing’_**

You roll your eyes and flip the page; “I’d like to see them try”,you mutter angrily as you keep finding trash articles about nonsense of the police force. What reporters think is what’s going on in the city and their terrible attempts of newsworthy articles. You groan as you shut the newspaper closed and slam it on the nightstand, you didn’t notice Lin standing by the foot of the bed drying her hair. Lin look at you “read the newspaper, huh?” she goes to hang her towel back on the rack before coming back into the bedroom. “yeah, if you want to call it a newspaper. It’s a bunch of hog-monkey” you huff “reporters have nothing better to do than spew out trash” she shrugs as she lays down on the bed beside you, wearing her white tank top and sweats.

“yeah, you’re right” you groan as you unbutton your shirt and pants, taking them off and set it aside then get under the covers and lay down in your black tank. You turn on your side and watch Lin looking a bit uncomfortable, “everything okay, Lin?” you say softly as you reach your hand placing on top of hers. “what?” Lin blinks then looks over at you and moves her hand away “oh yes, I’m fine” she scoots down going under the covers and turns onto her side. You sigh softly blowing a piece of hair out of your face from frustration as you retract your hand “you know, usually when someone says they’re fine, they’re not.” You lay onto your back as you look up at the ceiling when Lin doesn’t say anything “but, I won’t pressure you to talk when you don’t want to.” You glance around wondering why Lin asked you to stay when she’s acting like this. All the tiredness from work starts to hit and you start to doze off, falling sound asleep.

You’re asleep shifting around once turning on your side to get comfortable and go back into a deep sleep. You’re awaken by a sound of gasps and movement in the bed, you open your eyes and see Lin sitting up trying to catch her breath, her back covered in sweat down her spine. You sit up and rests your hand on her back as you as you move her hair out of her face tucking it behind her ear, “Lin, you’re okay. You’re safe in your apartment. I’m here. y/n is here.” You whisper softly as you soothe her back. Lin continues to gasp, and you put your hand on her cheek and turn her face, so she looks at you and you rest your forehead on hers. You guide her to regain control of her breathing after a few minutes, “good” you whisper as you feel Lin’s breathing starting to slow down and her heartbeat settling back down. Lin’s eyes widen and pushes herself away from you getting out of bed. She covers her mouth as she heads to the bathroom slamming the door behind her. Your brows furrow as you get out of bed and knock on the door, “Lin?” gently calling out to her. No response back, pressing your ear against the door you hear quiet sobs. A sigh escapes your lips as you peel back from the door and walk away. Walking to the kitchen you grab a glass and fill it with some water. Bringing the glass over to Lin, you knock on the door again “Lin, I brought you some water. I’ll just set it on the nightstand. Whenever you’re ready...” you softly talk from the other side of the door and set the glass on her side of the bed. Getting back into bed you pull the covers up and turn on your side. Once Lin composes herself she steps out of the bathroom and sits down taking the glass and drinks some water. You just keep your eyes closed as you feel Lin on the bed and sense her lay down in bed. Letting a moment of silence settle, you speak softly to her, “If it helps, I get nightmares too sometimes. You’re not alone” again Lin doesn’t say anything at first then asks “what about?”. 

you lay on your back and sigh opening your eyes looking up at the ceiling, “I have this reoccurring dream of just watching my parents’ health deteriorating till their death on repeat. I’m stuck behind some one way mirror, I can see them, but they can’t see me. There isn’t a door or any way in to reach them, just forced to watch them and hear for their... pleas.” you tear up towards the end and wipe them away. “It’s not a dream I share with anyone”. 

“You never told anyone?”

you shake your head “no, Su was woken when I woke up screaming. I told her I was getting chased by a dragon” you chuckle covering your eyes. “It was silly of me, but I--”

“didn’t want to burden someone else with your troubles” Lin finished your sentence and you nodded “...yeah” you look over at her and notice Lin has been looking at you. you sit up a bit and lean over pressing your lips softly on her forehead. You didn’t catch Lin slightly moved her face thinking you were going. to kiss her lips, but she caught herself. Laying back down you fix the sheets on you “if you want to use me as a pillow you’re welcomed too” you give her a smile as you settle down. Closing your eyes you feel Lin. scoot over and lays her head on your chest putting your arm around her. a smile creeps onto. your lips “you’re safe, Lin” you whisper as you rub her back pulling the sheets back on the both of you. Lin lets out a staggering breath as she calms down and puts an arm around your abdomen and holds onto you. “Your nightmare is safe with me if mine is safe with you?” you softly mumble against her forehead wiping off the beads of sweat off her. Lin just nods softly and "deal”, you look down at her and rub up her arm “I thought you were seeing a healer… “you start to almost reprimand her, but you stop yourself “never mind, not the time. Right now you need rest.” You whisper as you hold on the bridge of your nose then run your hand up and down Lin’s arm soothing her back to sleep.

You wake up a couple hours later, an hour before the alarm was set to go off and you slowly slide away from Lin’s grasp. Carefully not to wake her as you slowly creep to the bathroom and take a quick shower and change into your clothes. You head out to the kitchen and decide to make some breakfast and tea. You make a veggie scramble, a mix of sautéed bell pepper, onion, broccoli, and mushroom mixed with scrambled eggs then added the spinach last so it doesn’t wilt and has a bit of crunch. You add a side of rice and steamed buns, plating them while you start to clean up your mess. Lin slowly walks out towards the noise as she rubs her eyes, “y/n?” she mumbles as her eyes adjust to the light. “morning Lin” you smile softly “have some breakfast.” You pull a chair out for her and she sits down confused looking around then notices the plate of breakfast you made, “you made breakfast?” she looked at you incredulous of the plate before her. “yeah, eat up.” You rub her shoulder as you set a mug of

Jasmine tea beside her while you sit next to her and start eating with her.

Lin gets ready for work; bending her uniform on as you cleaned up the dishes washing them then setting them out to dry. You go to the bedroom and grab your shirt buttoning it up while you walk towards the front door. Lin looks at you while you fix your shirt while looking at the mirror by the door, fixing your collar, “I appreciate what you’ve done, last night and breakfast. You didn’t have to do that though.” You smile as you look at yourself, “it’s nothing, I would do it whether or not you had a nightmare. I don’t usually cook breakfast for people, so consider yourself lucky.” You smirk as you look over at her. You mentally decide whether you should bring up the nightmare from last night to her, but you decide not to press it right now. Maybe later or another day, no use in filling her mind about it early in the morning. You look up at her and give her a soft smile “I’ll catch you at the station” you turn to open the door before Lin calls out to and walks towards you, “I-“ she stuttered trying to come up for the words but she leans in and presses her lips onto yours, her hand placed on your cheek. Your eyes widen in surprise, but you quickly relax and return the kiss before pulling away, lightly licking your lips, “If that was a way to seal the deal we made last night. Maybe I should make more deals with you” you chuckle to which Lin rolls her eyes returning your words “I’ll catch you at the station”.


	4. Day Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Since there is no one to hang out with in the City you decide to treat yourself by upgrading your trusted bike when a certain Chief comes and rarely asks for your help.

You wipe your forehead while working in your garage back at your apartment, your hands full of grease while you’re fixing up your bike. It had taken a spill at a chase, you figured it was time to give “Nox” an upgrade. You’ve already removed and changed the air filter and checked your oil to make sure it’s clean. You decide to replace the exhaust pipe and add a new design you made where instead of the standard one exhaust you bended together 2 into 1 piece and installed it into the bike. After that was all set and done you gave a fine tune into the system then put it into neutral and wheeled the bike out into the street to turn it on. You didn’t want to disturb the neighbors with any potential loud noises. You crank Nox up and hear them roar, “already a nice change, let’s see if you like it” you mutter under your breath as you check out the bike, revving it before you kick off and drive around the block. You test the speed kicking it into another gear and grin noticing the change of how fast you’re going. You’re weaving in and out of traffic averting passersby then slow down right back at your apartment. You catch your breath and laugh “phew that was better than expected. You sure like the upgrade huh” you smile as you pet your bike. Even though it’s a mechanical being you couldn’t help but treat it just like if it were alive, maybe that was weird but you and Nox have a relationship that not many can understand. Most people have pets, you have Nox.

You wheel Nox back into the garage and lock them back in place to continue doing some tuning. You feel someone walking towards you and look over and see Lin standing by the garage door, “Lin?” you drop your tools in the toolbox and stood up, grabbing a rag to wipe your hands and put it in your back pocket of your work pants, “what are you doing here? Not that I’m not glad to see you.” You crossed your arms as you look at her, kind of embarrassed at how greasy you probably look. Lin looks you up and down, taking in this different grease hog-monkey side of you, “I was on my way to a meeting with the president when my satomobile sputtered out and gave out on me. Since you live by I don’t normally do this, but I was wondering if you could help…” You saw Lin struggling to ask for help, come to think of it you never have seen Lin ask for help from anyone, so this was foreign to experience. You’re interest have been peaked as you put your arms down and nod “yeah, sure. Want to point me to where the satomobile is at” you walk over to your workbench and grab your shirt sliding it on and button up a couple of them as you head out with Lin and start walk down the sidewalk. “it’s a couple of blocks east from here.” Lin pointed out you nod “hope I didn’t interrupt anything important” she muttered. “oh no, I was finishing up before you arrived.” You smile “wasn’t sure if you were home or out with Ms. Sato” you look over at Lin “I guess that’s fair; since I don’t really hang out with that many people. Everyone is out of the city, Asami went back to the South Pole to settle out details on the deal with Varrick. Since it’s my day off I decided to give Nox a tune up.” Lin cocks an eyebrow as she looks at you “Nox? Who is Nox?”

Your cheeks softly blush, _shit I never mentioned her the bike’s name_ , ‘uhh..yeah that’s my bike’s name….” you rub the back of your neck. You look over at Lin and notice her lips look slightly more tinted than before. _Did Lin reapply her lipstick?_ you bite your lip as you think then notice Lin caught you staring. and you quickly look away. “oh look there’s the car!” you point out at the Chief’s satomobile and you assess it, you pop the hood and there’s smoke coming from the engine. _Hmm seems like it’s overheated_. You go back to the sidewalk and lay down to look under the car where you notice some fluid all over the street. _Hmm maybe a leak? A broken hose, you’re going to need to lift the car to get a better look_ “I think I found the problem” you get back up as you dust yourself off wiping your hands on your pants. “You’ll able to fix it?” Lin looks at you. “yeah, most likely, I’ve handled building a couple of mobiles while working at the factory so it shouldn’t be a problem.” You walk over to the back of the car “just help me by steering the satomobile while I push it” you unbutton your shirt and sets it in the backseat while Lin gives you a look “you’re going to push?”

“yeah, so get in the car” you order her, and her eyes widen but scoffs as she walks over and gets in the car “alright, put the car in neutral” you call out to her and you watch her put the car in the neutral setting. You make sure to get enough grip on the ground and start to push, your biceps flexing as your black tank hugs onto you. You don’t notice the glances Lin looks at you from her rearview mirror as she keeps the car going straight, then steers the car into the garage. You push you bike up against the wall to give you more space and you put the car up on your makeshift lift by locking the wheels with metal bars and you earth bend pillars to lift the car up enough for you to slide under with your creeper. You look over at Lin and toss her your keys “take my bike to make your meeting. The car should be done by the time you get back” Lin looks at the keys then back up at you “uh, you sure?” You walk back to your bike and wheel it out the garage and hand her a helmet, “yeah, I can trust you. Don’t make me regret it though” you smile. Lin reluctantly gets the helmet and mounts the bike “um, thanks y/n.” she muttered “anytime, _chief”_ you smirk as you watch her start the bike up “oh, careful, this has more kick than those police cycles” she nods and speed off.

You walk back and start working on the problem, you place the creeper on the ground and slide yourself under. You find the problem, it’s thankfully fixable, a hose seemed to have teared possible from the heat of the fluid or maybe from debris passing by. You slide from under the car and look at your box of extra materials you have and find a long enough piece of hose to replace the torn one. You grab your tools and slide under to unhook the old one and replace it with a newer more durable one. After a couple of minutes you finish and slide back out and get up, walking over to shelf grabbing some coolant fluid and start filling the line back up. You decide to check on the rest of the fluids and oils and make sure everything is filled at their max line. After about 30 minutes of work you bring the car down from your lift and grab a tarp to set on the seat and start it up. You press on the accelerator to let the engine rev up and let all the oils and fluid circulate to lubricate all the systems. You turn back and pull the car out of the garage and take it for a spin around the block. You turn back into the garage, the car seems to work back in perfect condition. You put the tarp back into its spot and close the garage, locking it as a precaution. You make sure to grab the shirt you left in the backseat out as you head inside your place. You wash up taking a hot shower and making sure all the grease and gunk is off of you. You change into some new fresh clothes, a fresh black tank and another buttoned shirt and relaxed on your couch.

*

You haven’t noticed how much time has passed by until you hear a knock on the door. You must’ve knocked out without realizing and you rub your eyes as you get up and open the door. “Hey! you’re back. I see the bike is in one piece” You glance between your bike and Lin, “had little faith on me?” Lin gruff as she crossed her arms then gave you a smirk. “no, but the reassurance it nice” you let a soft chuckle escape as you open the door more to let Lin in as you escort her toward the garage as you grab her keys from the bowl on the end table, “You’re car is fixed. A torn hose seemed to cause the problem.” You muttered while you wake yourself up. “A hose caused a whole car to just shut down?” Lin spat out incredulously, “yeah, it can be from time, heat, or even some debris can cut it. that hose circulates the coolant fluid which keeps the engine lubricated and from overheating.” You explained to her while you hand her the keys. “replaced the hose, I took the liberty to check the other fluids. Back up as new” you shrugged while you walk towards the garage door and open it, then walk out and grab your bike to wheel it inside. You look over at Lin who hasn’t moved from the door “you’re not going to start it up?” you slide your hands into your pockets. “no, I trust you..r experience with Future Industries.” You slightly smirk as you catch the beginning of what Lin was trying to save. “right, my experience.” You nod over to the car egging Lin to go turn the car on, she reluctantly walks over and turns on the car, roaring back to life. You smile proud of your work as you look from the hood to the trunk of the car then your eyes setting on Lin. You move your hands from your pockets and cross them across your chest, “well I say that sounds like a mighty polar bear-dog” you smirk. Lin gets out of the car and takes a step towards you, “how about I treat you to dinner, as a thank you for the car.” Your arms drop down as you look at Lin. “you don’t have to do that” you wave her off and laugh “--but now that you mention food. I haven’t eaten really eaten anything today” you think about it and sure enough you only had a sweet bread and coffee in the morning and completely flew passed lunch. “sure, dinner would be nice. Let me just get changed into something more suitable than casual.” You give her a smile and head inside “you’re free to come inside and wait” you call out as you hurry to your room and change from your sweats into some pants and switch your house shoes into your normal boots and change into a dark lead long sleeve shirt. You grab a jacket and head back out where Lin is waiting in the living room. She seems to be looking at your bookcase, filled with different topics on mechanics, literature, art, history. “you’re welcome to borrow a book” you glance at her as you slide your jacket on” Lin shakes her head having been caught “what? Oh no, I was just admiring your…collection.” Your eyes squint as if wondering to buy her excuse, but you wave it off “I’m not really a big fan of reading, but I do have some interests” you both make your way out the house, you make sure everything is locked and secured.

*

You’re sipping on some sake while Lin talks about how it’s been at the station on your day off. Wong’s Wok is a well-known restaurant that is pretty close by to the two of you, you decided it would be best to just share plates of rice, roasted duck, steamed vegetables and dumplings. Lin was talking about her incompetent detectives, Lu and Gang, “they’re a bunch of idiots! it’s like I have to watch over them like some children if I want them to actually work”. You almost spit out your sake as you try to not laugh, Lin looks across from you her eyebrow perking up. “I’m sorry” you wipe your mouth as you stifle a laugh “they are idiots, have the time they’re just stuffing their faces with varri-cakes or whatever snacks we have at the station.” You mutter while you munch on some string beans. “sometimes I wonder how they even made it as detectives.” You look over at Lin and she looks at you back, then gives you a look as if she can’t believe what you’re a sinuating “it wasn’t me, must’ve been Saikhan when he was chief” she groans as she rolls her eyes at the name. “can’t believe how much damage Saikhan has done. Paperwork has more than doubled!” you smirk as you shake your head, “Saikhan is a coward ass” you spat out, which resulted in the both of you exchanging in a couple of laughs.

*

Lin hands you a glass of whiskey as she sits down at her couch beside you. As much as you both enjoyed dinner you felt like you weren’t ready to leave Lin. You both came back to her apartment for a nightcap, you’re leaning back on her couch leaning your arm out on the headrest, there is a comfortable silence between the two of you as you each taste your respected choice of alcohol. You glance up at her and watch how the streetlight illuminates her soft features of her unscarred cheek. How her eyes glisten under the soft lighting, you take in the image but there is one thought that creeps up in the back of your head and you decide to bring it up slowly by exhaling a deep breath “any luck with the nightmares?” you say barely a whisper. You try to sound casual but with a hint of concern in your tone of voice as your eyes land on her jade eyes to look for any reaction. She quickly looks up at you after taking a sip and brushes you off “handled, barely come.” She scoffs as she takes a rather large swig of whiskey. You eye her gently as she reaches to refill her glass “sure” you respond short and quick as you look over at the fireplace as you also take another sip. Your throat tightens a bit feeling the slight burn of the alcohol hit but you let it slide down and coat your throat. “what do you mean by that?” Lin growls at you but doesn’t meet your eyes, you turn your direction back at Lin and you can’t help but analyze her body language.

“well if the last time I slept here was any indication I would think it’s not handled.” You set your glass down on the coffee table and turn your body to her direction. “You should talk to someone about them. If you don’t want to talk to someone who you know in confidence then speak to a therapist or a counselor.” You reach over and place your hand on hers and softly hold it “There has to be someone here in the city that can help with a traumatic experience.” Lin quickly moves her hand and gets up walking across the room “I’m not going through anything. I’m not weak. I don’t need to talk to anyone.” she spats out as she looks out the window. You look up and watch her “I never said you were weak, Lin. You’re the strongest person I know, but please don’t tell me or yourself that you aren’t going through some sort of post-traumatic stress from your encounter with Amon, because you are. I’ve read about it from articles and journals about the hundred year war. You’re not alone, Lin”. You stand up and walk over to her standing beside her and put your hands on her cheeks to have her look at you, “You’re not alone, Lin. I’m here. Please let me in.” Your voice softening in a whisper as you caress her cheeks, Lin looks like she’s on the verge of breaking her walls down, her eyes glistening with tears forming. Her face leaning in her forehead resting against yours, “I…..can’t” she breathes out as she puts her hands over yours and pulls them off and steps back. Your eyes widen but shake your head as you see she’s trying to build that wall back up “you can, this is feeling of vulnerability is foreign to you. It’s always hard to open yourself to someone, but when you do it’s freeing to know that you don’t have to bottle all these thoughts and feelings to yourself. You can probably push everyone else away, like Tenzin or other friends or people in your circle, but you can’t push me away. I won’t allow it, you’re too valuable to me. You’re too important to me, Lin” You look at her as you slowly step back towards her and return your hands on her cheeks and look into her eyes. “Why” Lin mutters at you upset and slightly mad as she tries to push you away “Why am I so important to you. I shouldn’t be…” You don’t know if it’s the alcohol in your system or just wanting to show Lin how you feel about her but you gulp as you open your mouth while you look at her and utter those three words, “Do I really have to spell it out to you, I love you…” you breathe out your eyes glancing down to her lips but quickly up back at her eyes. You notice her eyes widening and you shake your head to reassure her as you softly caress her cheeks “I’m sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have said it. You’re dealing with these nightmares and here I am causing another problem.” You softly smile before you drop it. “I know I can’t make you promise to see a healer, but at least make an attempt to get some help” you slide your hands away from her cheeks and pull back, “come on…”

Lin glances at your lips then at your eyes, feeling like her head is about to bust from her inner turmoil. She refuses to let her walls down. She’s a Beifong, A Beifong doesn’t cry or get emotional. That’s weak, but around y/n, she makes you feel like you don’t have to constantly have a wall around you. You don’t have to pretend around y/n, maybe you can open yourself a bit to her? No, opening yourself up just gives people a chance to break you. Your record isn’t the best on the amount of people who have left and hurt you. Tenzin, Su, Toph being the main ones, Kya and Bumi left as soon as they could. You glance up at y/n’s eyes the light coming from the fireplace highlights the little specs of auburn in her green eyes. You felt y/n start to move her hands away from your cheeks and step back. “wh-where are you going?” you watch her grab your hand and pull you away from the living room.

You look at her and laugh softly “it’s late, people usually go to sleep at this hour, Lin” you say to Lin as you tug her towards her bedroom. “I don’t want to sleep” Lin protests and yanks her hand away and you turn to face her “Fine, but what was what you told me a couple of nights ago. “always be well rested for work. I won’t stand you being tired on the job”” you cross your arms on your chest as you look at her. “oh don’t use my words against me, y/n” she spats out as she pushes pass you walking towards the bed and starts bending her armor off. You smirk “why? It’s those words of wisdom I follow so much” you let out a laugh. Lin rolls her eyes and mumbles under her drunken breath as she gets ready for bed while you lean against the doorframe. She stumbles out of her pants as she tries to change into sweats. You shake your head smiling at the image and you walk over to her and sit her down on the bed to help her take them off. “what are you doing?! I can undress myself” she hiccups moves her legs away as she slides her sweats up on her legs. “fine, Lin. Sorry I was just trying to help” you sighed slightly annoyed but trying to remain calm as you got up running a hand through your hair. “well stop trying! It’s pathetic” she exasperated as she turns her face glaring at you. This whole little quip has sobered you up quite a bit as you look at Lin, unsure of what to say or do. You inhale deeply then slowly release that breath before muttering “fine, goodnight Lin”. You step back out of the bedroom and walk out of her apartment.

You’re almost halfway home completely forgetting that Lin had driven you out all day so you’re walking. You’re still about six more blocks till you arrive, you see a garbage bin and punch down on the lid causing a large indention, “shit” you exclaim as you kick the bin sending it in the air a couple ten feet away. You’re mad, confused, frustrated, in all honesty you’re unsure what you’re feeling, maybe guilty? Guilty that you just confessed your feelings to Lin, mad and frustrated that Lin just closes up and doesn’t let anyone in. Confused on her feelings about you and if it’s just in your head or if she’s possibly using you. You look around to make sure no one is looking your way as you continue walking as your drunken mind starts to fill with thoughts and emotions.

_She’s probably just using you, y/n. You’re just a warm body for her to sleep next to. Her last relationship was Tenzin which was more than a decade ago considering Jinora’s age. You’ve given her the physical touch, the intimacy, she hasn’t had in a while. You’re becoming a stupid fool, y/n! Women would try to swoon you whenever you traveled and visited bars at the different nations. Some were lucky enough to spend the night with you before you left the next morning to continue on your travels. It’s been months since the compound and all Lin does is kiss you, never more._

“Lin is different” you mutter under your breath, a discussion with yourself, your mind and heart fighting with one another, three more blocks. Your mind going over the reality, the logic of this whole dynamic between the two while your heart speaks on what’s happening between the lines. Your eyes scanning the ground for some answer you’re trying to find as you reach your apartment. You open your door and get inside locking it after as you lean against it trying to clear your thoughts.

 _This was just one little spat. A drunken one. You shouldn’t take this seriously. It’ll all blow over tomorrow_. _You’re just panicking and thinking the worse. You know how Lin feels about you, her glances and the way her body reacts to yours. Tomorrow is a new day._

You walk over to your bedroom and fall on your bed, exhausted from the day’s events and you close your eyes to shut your mind off. “Tomorrow is a new day” you mutter softly before you doze off, your face on a pillow as you lay flat on your stomach.

Lin on the other hand, called for you when you left. She thought you probably went back to the living room and checked, but there was no one there. She wondered if she would run after you but not in her current state. “Nice going, Beifong” she spat at herself as she walked back to bed. _She rubbed her face as she laid down, staring at the ceiling._

 _This is what you wanted right? You told her to stop trying. She left. You’ve pushed the probable one good thing you’ve had. If one fight has her leaving so quick then she isn’t worth my time._ _Everyone leaves, eventually they all leave._


	5. Jealousy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I never explained but when the text is in italics that is your inner thoughts.

“Shit” you groan as you slowly open your eyes but squint seeing the shining lights “fuck what time is it?” you look over at the clock and see it’s 7:30. “fuck” your rub your face and try to work off your hangover. You have 30 minutes to make it to the station, you’re not going to let last night stop you from working or even late. You push yourself off and stumble to the shower and quickly shower and brush your teeth at the same time. You brush your hand through your hair as you get changed into your Lieutenant uniform instead of the metal armor. You look at yourself in the mirror, eh it’s alright, your hair is a mess, but you can brush it off as a new hairstyle. You grab your keys from the bowl by the door leading to the garage and you metal bend the garage open and mount on your bike and put your helmet on. You start it up then drive off before metal bending the garage door closed. You sped off to the station, weaving past cars and carriages and make yourself to your usual spot.

You head inside the lobby and look up at the clock and see 8:10. What’s 10 minutes

You go into the elevator and go up to your office and look through your paperwork as you put your helmet in the bottom drawer of your desk, before getting a knock at your door, “yes?” you don’t look up. “Lieutenant y/n, I was about send an APB on you.” You smirk and let out a laugh as you look up “I’m sure that would’ve made an eventful morning. How can I help you, officer Zhang” you stand up and walk over to give him a handshake and greet him in as he laughs at your comment. “yeah, it would’ve been, but I’m just here to drop off recent anonymous tips on the triads.” He hands you a folder that you gladly accept. “thanks, Zhang, but why didn’t you just drop it off like usual?” you give him a soft smile but couldn’t help to give him a confused look while you open the folder and looks at the papers. Zhang cleared his throat “I also was going to ask if you had any idea on the Chief.” Your ears perked up but don’t look up, “the Chief, what do you mean?” you calmy ask. “Well, She hasn’t appeared in the office. Assistant Chief Saikhan doesn’t know. I know you and she are sort of friends” he asked slowly. You slowly nod “I see. Well no, unfortunately I have not. She could be out on patrol. You know she likes to go on her own. A meeting with new president Raiko.” You put a finger on your chin as you think of another possibility. “or maybe she took a personal day, Raava knows that woman never takes a day off.” Both of you laugh as he agrees. “well that’s true” he shakes his head as he brushes his mustache with his fingers. “but I’ll use my detective skills and find out, make sure she’s ok.” Both of you stand up as you walk him out your office before giving him a pat on the back as your eyes glance over to Lin’s office, the door closed.

 _Is she not showing up? Should you check up on her. No, you’re not her girlfriend. Like she said, stop trying._ You turn around and go back into your office, closing the door behind you and go over the new information you’ve just received.

After a couple of hours you’ve been working on your large writing board putting down all the information you have of the five bending triads. You have a folder on each of them, slowly building up a case on each.

Agni Kai Triad—an all-firebender triad

Red Monsoon Triad—an all-waterbender triad

Terra Triad—an all-earthbender triad

Creeping Crystal Triad—a triad with many earthbending members

Triple Threat Triad—a mixed bender triad, consisting of earth-, fire, and waterbenders

Most of all the triads are involved in making money by organized crime except for the Red Monsoon Triad who are known to participate in extortion. The last you’ve dealt with the Red Monsoon; they were the ones you and Mako chased and took down two of their members. You’ve been trying to locate one of the warehouses or locations of where these triads would stash their supplies and weapons. You’ve always hated the Agni Kai Triad after you heard what they did to Asami’s mother and though she never told you to you swore to take them down. The other being the Triple Threats Triad, they’re one of the powerful triads and one of the few mixed benders. “Where can I find you pieces of shit” you mutter as you pace in your office looking down at the pieces of papers scattered on the floor in different piles. There is a knock on your door “come in” you call out not looking at who walked in “hey there Lieutenant” they look at the mess in your office, “woah, some mess you have here” that voice belonging to none other than Gang. You gruff “it’s called work, you should try it sometime” you snap at him but don’t give him your attention as you put a pin on a large map on your wall “you here to question my work ethic or you got something worth my time, Lieutenant” you glare over at his direction. Gang is stood in shock unsure of what to say and you pinch the bridge of your nose, “sometime today, Gang!” you bark out. Gang stood up straight “uh, just to let you know, Chief’s in and she’s requesting a meeting with you concerning the triads” Your pupils dilate a bit hearing that Lin came into the office, but you collect your cool. You sigh running your hand through your hair before rubbing the back of your neck “fine, thanks for telling me”. Gang walks out and heads back to his desk as you head out your office locking the door behind you as you make your way down to the Chief’s office.

*

You mentally prepare yourself to see Lin, after last night you’re not sure how to react but you have to be strong to keep your cool. You knock on the door and hear the familiar voice call you in and you step inside closing the door behind you, putting your arms behind your back standing in attention, “Chief”. “Lieutenant y/n, I’m sure Gang has told you the reason for this meeting.” She looks down at her papers wearing her glasses. “of course, Chief” you respond and don’t bother to start a friendly conversation and keep your professionalism “so with the new information we’ve received on the triads, we’re getting closer to finding a location for the Triple Threats.” You walk around the room as you state your findings, not looking once at Lin and keeping your arms behind your back to keep yourself grounded. “what did you find? President Raiko has been on my neck to knock these triad down a peg or two.” She snapped. “After the end of the Anti-bending Revolution, several members had their bending removed because of their criminal activities, which we’re aware of from Avatar Korra. Since then there has been a change in hierarchy order in who will be the new leader which left with Viper replacing Zolt as the triad’s new leader.” You look around the office, you haven’t really looked at the details the most you’ve seen was the desk and the couch. “yes, that’s already been discussed you got anything new?” Lin spat out, you roll your eyes your back facing her, but you quickly turn around and look ahead and continued on with your report “With the help of undercover work we have found that there’s been talk about moving a shipment to a new location of those gloves, Hiroshi Sato made. It’s scheduled to be moved by the end of this week, late at night over by the shipping yards. Triple Threats are hoping to make a large profit in selling these goods to the other nations. I’m planning on doing a stakeout with a few selected officers and then rush in and take out the Triple Threats and prevent that shipment from leaving this city. I have my sources and am confident this will be a success, Chief.” You stand across from her desk looking over her going back at attention.

*

Lin’s POV

Lin could sense you approach her office, those footsteps she grew accustomed to get used to it. Before you came into the office she exposed her right foot and placed it on the floor before calling you in and sense your pulse. She noticed it had raced a bit before returning to a normal pace, keeping her nose down as she has on her glasses on looking at the paperwork. “…I’m sure Gang has told you the reason for this meeting” she said flatly not looking up at you as she shuffles some papers around. She listened to you speak, you talking to here with such professionalism that she hasn’t seen since your beginning days at the force. Her throat tightens at the thought, she noticed that you haven’t looked at her once since coming into the office. Not even a smile or a glisten from your eyes, she never knew how much she took advantage of your smile. In her frustrations on how you’re being right now, with this act towards her she spats out with you “…you got anything new”. There. At least some reaction it was faint, but your heart did race for a second, either by anger or surprised. Instead of some of your little teasing comments you just kept on with your report. You finally break and look up at y/n, her eyes gazing out at the window and you think she caught your glance as she turns to walk in your direction, but she looked over you. She’s purposely averting your eyes. You listen to y/n’s plan on her stakeout on the Triple Threat in the following week. You nod understanding her words and then watch as she stands across from you at her desk staring at your eyes once she’s done. _Y/n eyes are dark, not vibrate as you recall, this is a different side of her you haven’t seen. Is this an act or is she following your order from last night and has stop trying with you?_

*

“well, chief?” you look at Lin’s eyes, the first since last night. You’re analyzing her face, and body language and can’t gather any information. Lin is a professional at keeping her emotions in take inside and outside. “very well, you seem to have a plan in order. As far as the stakeout, I’ll be joining you.” Your eyes widen and you begin to stammer your words and your arms slightly dropping from your back “with all due respect, Chief, I believe we’ll do fine without having to bother or ruin your evening,” you state out bringing your arms back up at their proper height behind you. “I have to be there as Chief to make sure this will be successful as you say. I will not allow anything to prevent us a win. President Raiko expects a win for the public.” Lin looks up at you and meets your gaze as she stands up from her desk, you watch her intently calming your pulse as best you can. “Very well, Chief. I’ll send you the plan for the night in the following days. Everything will be in order--for you to review, of course of any changes”

“thank you, I’ll be expecting it on my desk as soon as possible” Lin steps aside and walks around the desk as she skillfully closes her boot quietly. You give her a nod as you watch her movement “Sure thing, Chief, anything else you require?” Lin waves her hand no “that is all, Lieutenant.” You both reach for the door, your hand reaching the knob first with hers landing on top, you give her a slight smirk as you turn the doorknob and open the door as you look over to her “Chief” you dismiss yourself coolly nodding towards her as you remove your hand from hers and walks away not looking back as you go back to your office.

*

Once you reached your office you closed the door behind you and leaned against the door trying to catch a deep breath. You felt like you couldn’t breathe in the same room with her, yet you somehow powered through. You rubbed your eyes then the rest of your face, you haven’t slept much since getting home so late. You could go for some coffee right about now; you head back out and head over to the watering hole where this is water and coffee. Luckily there is some coffee left in the pot and you pour yourself a cup adding a bit of sugar and milk. You accidentally get bump into the shoulder by someone hurryingly around a corner. You quickly evade getting the coffee spilled on you most of it falling on the desk and you grab some paper towels to clean the mess “oh sorry Lieutenant y/n didn’t see you there” you were about to curse them out and looked down and see Rei gathering paper that have fallen “oh Rei, it’s fine. I was quick enough to evade a bigger mess” you give her a smile as you finish tossing the rags in the trash bin and set the cup down so you can bend down to help her “where are you hurrying over to anyways?” as you help pick up some packets of paper as you look at her. Rei blushes at the embarrassment of running into you, she’s one of the office assistants that help out in the station, you often greet her whenever you see her as you come in to work. “I’m sorry I was just running over to restock the office supplies and drop off letters to the mailroom” she says hurryingly as she tries to gather the large stake of papers in her arms. You nod giving her the indication that you’re listening, but your eyes look over behind her head to Lin’s office. You’re pretty sure she heard the commotion; you take a sip of coffee and notice how bitter it is and make a sour face. Sure enough Lin’s door is open, but you don’t see her, so you look back at Rei “well it’s nice to see someone taking their job seriously, but make sure not run into anyone” you joke as you laugh a bit. Rei’s cheeks redden some more as she tries to hide behind the papers and you shake your head assuring her “I’m only joking, I’m sorry.” you give her a smile. “Oh, okay, usually with you officer I can’t tell if you guys are grumpy or joking, no offense” she jokes letting out a soft chuckle pushing your shoulder a bit, but she was slow to remove her hand away letting it run down your arm. “ah, well I guess it comes with the job. Stress and trying to keep the image that we’re hard to be brought down” you joke back and notice her hand as it runs down your arm but you don’t look down at it instead look down at your cup just holding onto it unsure what to do with it, it’s too bitter to drink. She giggles at your comment and you give her a small curl of your lips to form a smile. You’re familiar to this, Rei is being affectionate to you flirting with you by giving you these small touches. You’ve seen it before at Zaofu when you were in their security uniform. Women seem to like to see you in uniform. You glance up and notice Lin is standing by her doorframe looking at your direction. You quickly glance back to Rei and force yourself to take another sip, it seems to be even more bitter than the first, but you try to contain your face your nose scrunching up which Rei notices. “oh is the coffee bitter?” she whispers over to you her hand still resting on your arm and you nod. “yeah, but it’s all there is and I’m too lazy to refill the pot” you let out a laugh. “follow me, the secretary breakroom always has fresh coffee.” Your eyes widen “you sure? I wouldn’t want to take away coffee from the secretaries. It’s ok, this coffee will do” you shake your head but give her a smile. “no it’s fine, come on” she absentmindedly grabs your hand and pulls you along down the hall you chug the last of your coffee down before tossing the cup in the trash. Before you go down further down the hall you glance back at Lin’s door and your eyes meet hers, a slight blush appearing on her cheeks. Is she jealous?

*

Lin heard a bit of commotion coming down the hall of desks towards the watering hole she rolled her eyes and thinks it must’ve been Lu or Gang the dimwitted detectives. Until she heard two female voices, one familiar than the other, you open the door to let the chatter come in the room. It was definitely y/n’s voice but who was that other one? Lin stood away from the door not wanting to just watch out the spectacle. Lin just heard mumbling but clearly this girl is laughing at y/n jokes or commentary. Lin stand over and watch from inside your office and watch how the two of you exchanging words and smiles. Those smiles you know so well, though y/n sort of looks uncomfortable and looks like she ate a sour grape. Maybe it’s the coffee, you start to think you’re about to turn back to your desk until you see the girl put her hand on y/n’s arm as she leans in and whispers to in her ear. Lin notice that y/n looks over at her direction before looking away and Lin eyes narrow as you cross your arms. _What the ~~flameo~~ FUCK is going on here?!_ Her ears start to redden in sudden anger thankfully her hair covered it, Lin looked at y/n as she looks down at her cup of coffee she hasn’t looked at the girl’s hand on her arm, but she looks up and glances back at Lin. Your eyes briefly meet, and Lin looks away then look back at the scene as Lin notice the girl takes her hand away and your breath comes back. That is until you see the girl grab y/n’s hand and tugs her along, you hoped y/n would pull away, but you just watch her chug her coffee like it was a shot of liquor before tossing the cup in the trash and giving you a final glance before she disappear around the corner. You take a couple of steps forward seemingly to go after y/n. A sudden blush creeps up on your cheeks, a vein popping out your neck and your fists balling up. The officers looking at you and you instead put your anger out at them “what are you all standing around for?! This isn’t a daycare. Go out there and make some god damn arrests!” she barked out before she walked back in her office and slammed the door with her cables.

*

You felt terrible inside as you replayed that whole scene in your head. After Rei got you the coffee she even made it how you liked it, she learned from watching you prepare your coffee over the past couple months, you didn’t know if that was cute, sad, or weird. You thanked Rei for her kindness and dismissed yourself back to your office where you’re sitting behind your desk thinking things over.

_That was wrong. You shouldn’t have allowed Rei do that. You should have brushed her advances and you should have pulled your hand away. But she doesn’t know about you and Lin, so she wasn’t at fault. This is all you. But you and Lin have nothing. Why are you feeling bad, she told you to stop trying. Besides how is the coffee, tastes pretty great when it’s fresh and it’s made just how you like it. Rei is pretty cute fire nation girl too._

You groan as your rub your eyes trying to get rid of your thoughts. You feel misaligned since last night, you don’t feel your carefree self. You don’t remember when the last time was you worked out or mediated. _That’s what I need, a good work out or mediation hour, I’ll do that, maybe after work that should help clear my thoughts and emotions._ You shake your head as you finish the rest of your coffee battling the heat and let the burn keep you away. The burn in your tongue stung and helped your thoughts and focus on the rest of your plan on the stakeout.

*

While still in your office you unbutton your uniform jacket and hand it in the small closet. You grab a t-shirt pulling it over you then grab your coat and hat as you head out of your office locking behind you as head out the station walking past Lin’s door as you go downstairs. You take an unmarked car, you and drive over to a disclosed location where you walk down the alley slowly and carefully watching over your back and all corners. You hear a soft whistle which you turn your attention to and see a figure hiding behind a dumpster. You step cautiously closer to them until you hear your secret name “Nix?” you relax a bit “Skoochy?” you call back softly and see the boy step out. “long time no see, where’s Mako?” Skoochy perks up as he sits on the garbage bin “he’s out on vacation. Raava knows where at though. How’s the streets?” you smirk as you lean against the wall. “exciting as always” he beamed. This little boy always pickpocketed, Skoochy is an orphan and vowed to never go back once he escaped his second orphanage. He is acquainted with Mako and Bolin during their days as street urchins, you met him while on your case against the Red Monsoon. Apparently there has been some turf wars going on between the Triple Threats and them so Skoochy had some information on it. You look over at him and sort of pity the boy, but you admire his cleverness and wit, “so, I’ve been hearing there might be a way to get some of them spark gloves. You got any idea where I can get my hands on it?” you raise your eyebrows at him "My memory's a little 'foggy'. Maybe you can help 'clear it up'." He pretends to yawn and reached his palm up to you giving you a smirk. You laugh and put your hand in your pocket and takeout a small bag “Your memory better be clear. I’ll double it if it’s crystal” you eye him as you give him the bag. He uses his hand as a scale to weigh the bag and then opens and sees solid gold pieces of yuans then closes it back up. “You didn’t hear it from me, but the Triple Threats are planning to move their inventory out the city Friday night, during the pro-bending match. Since majority of the city will have eyes on the event that gives them the opening to do the move.” You hear Skoochy give you the information as you look around the alley making sure no one else is listening or anyone looking suspicious. “what time specifically, they got any weapons I should know?” you ask quietly “I’m not sure. My memory is getting foggy again” he quips, and you roll your eyes and smirk as you pull out some bills and hand it to him. “10 pm, just the usual weapons as always, though they might use the gloves, some non-benders joined.”

“oh well how about that, sounds nice” you deadpanned at him “alright I gotta go, before anyone comes looking for me” Skoochy jumps off you put a hand on his shoulder to stop him and hand him a small stack of bills “thanks for your crystal memory, kid” he smirked and tipped his hat “pleasure doing business, Nix” he ran off and you walk back to the car hiding your smirk as you finally got confirmation and a plan stirs in your head as you start the car and leave the place. You check the time-9pm- and decide to head on home instead of going back to the station.

*

Lin groans as she looks up rubbing her neck rolling her shoulders, she’s been locked in her office all afternoon. She looks up at the clock and notices it’s 11pm, her stomach rumbles, “shit, did I not eat today?” of course she didn’t she lost her appetite after watching that little show earlier. She got up and called it a night heading out to her car and went to her place. She didn’t understand why she was mad in the first place. She thought it was funny as she watched that girl make a fool of herself, but once she put her hand on y/n and then took her hand and y/n didn’t step back or pushed away her advances, it made her blood boil. Why didn’t you back away y/n?! Then there were those glances y/n gave you in between the conversation. Was she trying to get a reaction from me, make me jealous? Is that what this is, jealousy? You scoff at the thought and let out a laugh as you pull up to your apartment. You head inside and lock the door behind you as you bend your armor off and head to the kitchen to grab some cold leftovers from the icebox and a beer. She took a couple of bite of food before she lost her appetite again and just kept drinking beer. Her eyes glanced over at the front door, a small part of her hoped you would come through the door or that she would wake up and realize this was all a bad dream. She pinched herself and sighed when it was proved real and rubbed her face, “I’m not weak. I will not let y/n have power over me. I’m Lin Beifong. I’m a fucking Beifong!” she yells out as she slams her fists on the kitchen table. She grudgingly goes to bed and dreadfully goes to sleep. “y/n…” Lin muttered in her sleep she turned onto her side as she clutched onto a pillow. Her heart aching for what her mind wouldn’t allow her to realize what she really wants is… you.


	6. Rei

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tensions are rising but not in the city this time it's at work when a certain coworker make advances at you right when things aren't going great between you and Lin. 
> 
> “sure doesn’t seem that way, she seems to like you a lot” Lin smirks, enjoying how upset you’re getting. “that’s her fault, not mine. besides it’ll never happen.” You rebutted as you turn around and take a couple steps away “why is that?” she asks noticing your shift  
> “Cause she’s not you, Lin!” you burst out turning around to face her. You breathe deeply slightly panting “she’s not you…” you breathe out.

You’ve been feeling like yesterday was too weird for you being all professional at your job around Lin, so you felt cutting back and go back to how it was before but keeping some boundaries. You’re taking your helmet off when you notice Lin walking beside you “Morning, Chief” you greet her. She stops at her tracks and turns around to watch you mount off your bike and you ruffle your hair since it got flatten by the helmet. “morning, Lieutenant” she grumbles “you got that plan ready for my desk?” she asks you flatly as the both of you walk inside the building you open the door for her. “just about, got new information last night. Want to discuss the plan in my office?” Lin stiffens up a bit unsure on what to say “sure, now?” she looks up and watches the elevators rise as they go up to the upper floor. “whenever you’re available, chief” you give her a soft smile as you wave then head to your office.

You turn on the lights and take your jacket off as you’re in a buttoned up shirt, since you didn’t come back to the office you left your uniform jacket here. You go to your closet and change out, unbuttoning your shirt you hear a knock and quickly buttoned yourself back up and go to the door, “oh Rei, morning. Something wrong?” you look around confused to what she’s doing here in front of you. “oh no, everything is fine. I was coming up to hand Saikhan his queries and since you’re on the way I thought I could offer some coffee?” she sheepishly smiles as she offers you a cup. You look down at her then eye her “oh…nice. I appreciate it, thanks, Rei” you give her a smile “I should get back to work though, busy day” you step back trying to pull away from this “oh sure, you and your detectives are always constantly working.” She giggles as she tugs on her papers to her chest. You softly tap on the cup and nod curling your lips to a smile “yeah, we are. Well.. thanks for the coffee again, I’ll catch you around, bye” you nicely excuse yourself as you wave at her and close the door.

You set the cup of coffee on your desk and head back to the closet and unbutton your shirt and hang it in the closet as you grab your uniform jacket. You hear another knock at your door, you think it’s Rei, so you don’t answer. There is another knock, you groan as you button the bottom ones up “you know I can sense you in there” you hear Lin’s voice as she opens the door and let’s herself in closing the door behind her. She watches you button your uniform jacket up; you would’ve missed the blush creep into her cheeks if you weren’t looking at her. “Sorry, Chief. You’re always welcome in. Not like I have a choice” you smirk as you straighten out your sleeves and collar then walk over to your desk. “Right, well if you’re done doing whatever it is you’re doing we can get on with the plan on these triads.” Lin looks you over then sees the mess of paper in your office “what the flameo is all this?”. Now it’s your turn for a blush to creep up as you rub the back of your neck “my investigation, well Chief I’m a visual learner so it helps to spread out the information. Though I should’ve cleaned up, but it would mess with my process.” You walk over to crouch down and gather the papers in their stacks, cleaning up a bit. “leave it, wouldn’t mess with whatever process you have.” Lin orders and you stand up and walk back to your desk “very well, I know this looks like it makes no sense, but I’ve actually made a report of my findings that explains all this” you motion towards the area of the board, map, and papers. “you want to come around here and check this out” you motion her to come to your desk and offer your chair as she sits down as you lean over and point at a smaller version of the city’s map and an outline of your findings. “so as I said yesterday on the plans the Triple Threats have on this shipment. I’ve learned that it’s going to happen Friday night, 10 to be specific, during the pro-bending match. It’s going to happen at this dock here…” you grab a red fine tip marker and lean over Lin as you circle around the location. “I figure we would get two unmarked cars to stakeout and 3 boats on the ready until the opportune time to have them surrounded and strike.” You make marks at where each satomobile and boat would be placed to hide then you continue to draw arrows in the direction they would come in on the attack. You’re into the report that you don’t catch Lin’s glances as she listens to you work, until you finish and look over at her and see her eyes. Just now noticing how close your faces are to one another, your eyes glance down at her lips before looking back at her eyes. You stand up straight and clear your throat “well that’s the plan… hopefully it’s to your approval, Chief”. Lin looks down at your plan and looks it over once more taking it all in, “yes, it sounds promising. Very well in 3 days’ time, Friday we’ll move in. Is that all you have?” she stands up from your chair and makes her way towards the door “yes, Chief. Anything else you’ll be the first to know.” You state as you gather the papers together, but you don’t hear Lin leave yet “I didn’t know a secretary’s job description was to deliver coffee.” You quickly look up glancing over at the coffee then at her “I’m sorry?” your voice confused by her sudden comment “I saw that girl yesterday and again this morning both instances having to do with coffee.” She coldly states as she turns back around to face you “oh, that. It’s nothing. Nothing but an act of kindness between one friend to another” you calmly explain to giving it another thought. “some friend she is….to come several floors just to give a “friend” a cup of coffee.” You smirk “I understand how it must look to you, but despite your jealousy. Nothing is going on between the Rei and I.” Lin huffs out “Jealous? please” she opens the door and walks out closing the door behind her not giving you a chance to respond.

*

“almost done” you grunt as you tightened a screw, then put the object up in front of you admiring your work. Ever since the Equalist Revolution you didn’t want to be left without some sort of armor without having to rely on the police armor. After work, you decided to work on building your own, Asami let you use some of her scraps of metal sheets. You’ve easily bended some sheets to create forearm sleeves added a metal pipe for the cables to run through along the sleeve. You don’t have enough metal to make a full chest plate so you decided to make a back brace to which you can attach spool in the similar fashion that Lin wears hers on her back. You’ve spent the remainder of the day on this personal project of yours. Once you were almost done you head outside and tested it out on the side of your apartment building. You bend out the cable and scale up the side of the building, there is some coiling issues, and a couple loose bolts but you it’s a quick fix. You scale back down the building and fix the issues before putting up your protective armor in a locked cabinet. “this looks so cool, especially over my clothes” you mutter then yawn, “damn I’m tired” you head up to your bedroom and shower getting ready for bed.

*

You groan as you push yourself off the ground and get back in a fighting stance. Wiping the bead of sweat from the tip of your eyebrow as you start charging Rei dodging the fire she’s sending down at you. You start bending rocks at her before you launch yourself up and punch the ground sending columns out of the group sending Rei down to the ground. You breathe hard catching your breath as you see Rei knocked on her back, you walk over and look at her “yield?” she nods and laughs taking your hand as you pull her up. You smile as you massage your fingers and start unwrapping your wrists from the bindings, “you’re good at sparing, Rei. Thanks again for agreeing” you breathe out as Rei has a towel dabbing on her neck “oh no problem, glad I could help.” She smiles at you “thought may I ask why me?.” you look up at her as you slowly stop unwinding the bindings “oh, I would’ve asked Mako or avatar Korra but he’s out of the office. Since you’re the only other firebender I know. I figured I should ask.” You explain to her as you look down at your wrists flexing your hands “but why fire?” Rei turns her body in your direction, “hmm? Oh well I had this incident with a firebender when I was a kid. Where I got burned pretty badly. It’s how I got this mark on my bicep, I have another on the left side of my back” you show her your arm where the mark is. She reaches over and touches your mark and you step back moving your arm away. You don’t feel right having her touch you like this. “sorry” she is quick to apologize to you and you shake your head “it’s fine…I’m a good fighter. Though I do have some timidness fighting against fire. I guess I still have some reservations on that incident, so I want to get better. A better understanding on a firebender’s fighting style.” You state as you pace in the training arena “that’s smart. You say you have reservations, but I didn’t notice any during the sparing.” Rei looks at you while you walk and grabs a drink of water. You smirk “well I trust you enough to know you’re not going to do anything below the belt.” you chuckle a bit and a silence comes between the two of you as you unwrap the other binding from your left wrist. Rei walks up to you and lifts your chin with a finger, so you’ll look at her “I’ll never hurt you, y/n” she whispers slightly biting her lip as she leans in and presses her lips on yours. You’re in a state of shock by her sudden advance and you gently put her hands on her shoulders and push her back, “what are you doing?” you look at her in disbelief. “a kiss, silly” Rei smiles as she reaches over to move some hair away from your eyes and you grab her wrist and pushes her advances off. “Stop. I know what a kiss is, the question is why?!” You put more of a distance between the two of you. “I mean it’s pretty obvious that I like you.” Rei states as she takes a step closer to you. You take another step back, “well quit it. I don’t like you like that. We’re just colleagues. Nothing romantic is going on here.” You glare at her, standing your ground as you create more boundaries. “but the glances, the talks, the flirting…” Rei stammers about confused. You look at her confused “flirting? What flirting?! There has been no flirting. I’ve joked around but there wasn’t any flirting!” you stammer over your words then sigh deeply rubbing your temple “… Rei, look, I’m sorry. You’re a nice girl and all but I’m not interested in you. At All” Rei rubs her forehead trying comprehend what’s going on “I’m sorry, I could have sworn you were gay. My gaydar is usually not wrong.” She puts her hand on her hip in disbelief.

> Lin would never admit it out openly to you, but the thought of you being with someone else or anyone stepping in between, boiled her blood. She was looking for you, to ask questions about the Leader Viper, but didn’t find you in your office, she asked around the hall wondering where you went off to. She heard from Detective Gang that you decided to go spar in the training ground during your lunch break. As she was about to walk in the room she see Rei go in to kiss y/n, Lin back away from the area and has her back against the wall. Balling her fists she was about to go balls blazing and her mind goes to one thing _She’s closer to her age, you’re old. You’re better off alone. Yet again you get left for a younger woman._ What has Lin done that not once but now twice has her romances have been taken away by a younger attractive more feminine woman. Lin was so focused in her career and had been with Tenzin for almost a decade she never thought of anything whenever Tenzin teaching that new acolyte Pema. It was part of his whole keeping up the Air Nation legacy after all. It wasn’t until she was starting to notice little things like Tenzin, coming home later than normal and drifting apart. Until he broke up with her to be with Pema, she realized how foolish she was to not notice it sooner. _At least it has only been six months of her time with y/n and not ten years. You’re not going to fall for this again. Cut it off right now before anything builds further and you won’t get hurt. Build your walls back up and shut it off. Never again will you lower your wall for them. She balled her fist_

“I’m gay, yea. I’m attracted to women. I’m just not attracted…to you.” You stand unsure how she going to react to that last bit it sounded a bit harsh. Her eyes glared at you “what’s not attractive about me? I’m quite the catch” she walks up to you. You quickly take steps back “I’m sure you are. You’re just not my type….” You try to ease her down gently. “oh so beautiful women aren’t your type?” she crosses her arms not taking you serious at this point. “it takes more than looks to get my attention Rei” you roll your eyes as you cross your arms, turning your back away from her, “you should leave, breaks almost over”. You sense Rei about to say something else that you ball your fists getting tired of this banter that your outburst “I like someone else! Okay. I only have eyes for her. I’m done talking about this. Get out.” You look at her wave your hands out the door as you walk away going to your gym bag. “Does she work here?” she asks, and you shake your head annoyingly “no, you don’t know her. Lunch break is over.” Before Rei can push any information out you get interrupted by none other than Lin.

_Fuck_

> Lin was going to just walk away to prep the official break up after work until… she heard your outburst. She stood still when that bitch asked if the person you liked worked in this station and she felt your heart pulse quicker than normal before denying it. Lin grew annoyed of this bitch talking to you, so she stepped in to save you anymore torment and to just get this slut away.

“what is a secretary doing on the training grounds, only officers are permitted, Lieutenant.” She barks out to which Rei quickly grabs her things and runs out the room. Leaving you standing by the benches as you put your wrappings in your bag and grab your uniform jacket. “are you going to give me an explanation.” Lin walks into the room and closes the door behind her as she walks over to you. You look up at her as you step back to the back of the room over by the water station, “where are you going” she barks out. “what, can’t grab a drink of water” you bark back as you grab a paper cup and swig some water. You walk inside the training room intentionally getting as farther away from the door away from any wandering ears putting on the jacket, but you don’t button it up yet. “I thought it was fine since she works at the station. I didn’t think it was a problem, Chief.” You finally talk, looking down at the ground as you rub the back of your neck. “the sparing match or the kiss?” she spat out as she crossed her arms you look up fast you almost take out your neck “you saw that?!” you lower your head as you groan out lowering yourself down as you bring your hands up your hair. _How the fuck, are you in this situation right now._ “I think I saw plenty” Lin states. You bring your head up to look at her “oh so you saw me shove her off, then proceed to tell her that nothing was ever going to happen between me and her.” You state as you look up at her while you’re crouched down Lin rolls her eyes “I can’t take you seriously when you’re crouched down like some coward.” She snarls. You ball your fists as you stand up straight and walk right up to her, “what about now, _Chief_ ” you enunciate the last word “how is this for coward” you glare at her. “this is your place of employment not your space to mix business with pleasure” she states as she has her arms behind her back. You roll your eyes, “you know more than anyone that I take my job seriously.”

“maybe, that little shit show earlier says otherwise.” she shrugs as she hides her emotions well and takes control of the room.

“oh come on! Rei is nothing. She’s no one to me.” you raise your voice as you throw your rag to a wall. You starting to lose control of your emotions.

“sure doesn’t seem that way, she seems to like you a lot” Lin smirks, enjoying how upset you’re getting. “that’s her fault, not mine. besides it’ll never happen.” You rebutted as you turn around and take a couple steps away “why is that?” she asks noticing your shift

“Cause she’s not you, Lin!” you burst out turning around to face her, slightly panting “she’s not you…” you breathe out. Lin’s eyes widen as she takes a step back from your outburst. “control yourself Lieutenant” she says coolly undeterred by your statement. You give her a face, _how the fuck is she so calm yet you’re the one on the brink of breaking_ you stand up straight. Lin gives yourself a moment to control your emotions and breathing “you’re right. I was out of line. This is clearly not a conversation to be having at work. Excuse me, chief” you rush pass her as you button up your uniform “take the rest of the day off, Lieutenant” Lin calls out. You shake your head as you get your belongings “I’m fine, Chief. I’ll manage” you respond back. “it wasn’t a suggestion.” She walks out of the water station as she looks at you while she walks past you “it’s an order” you look up to see her as she walks out the room. You drop your bag in defeat before you pick it up again and rush out the station, not stopping to talk to anyone especially not Rei as she’s sitting behind the lobby counter.

*

You’ve spent the afternoon at a bar drinking your thoughts away, you’ve probably been there for 3 hours until Chen recommended you go home and offered to call you a cab. You wave him off and told him you’re fine and barely even drunk. You made sure to drink enough water and one you got somber enough you stumble out the bar and buy yourself a packet of cigarettes and a lighter from a nearby corner store.

You lean against the oak bark and breathe deeply closing your eyes as you focus on the clashing of waves of the water. How could you even allow yourself to drink because of a woman. It angered you, you take a cigarette out and light it, taking a puff and smoke. Opening your eyes as you look out at the horizon watching the sunset. You’ve given up smoking for years after learning of other ways to relax and get rid of your stress, but nothing seems to work now. You don’t understand the pull between you and Lin, it almost seemed magnetic since the first time you met. There was always this underline chemistry between the two of you. Everything seemed to click and make sense when you two spent those two days in the compound. How perfect your lips met and melded together when you shared your first kiss. You subconsciously brush your lips as you think back to that moment just know. Then close your eyes to force yourself to think of something else and take another smoke. Putting your hand on your face bringing your knee up to your chest. “Wow I am pathetic” you mutter and laugh at yourself. You don’t have anyone to talk to about this, everyone is out with Korra. Tenzin is with his family visiting Air Temples. Asami went back to the south pole to talk with Varrick. _Well at least I haven’t cried. That’s one good thing._ You laugh again as you take another puff. You notice a band of teens meeting up near the center of the park and start playing their instruments. You listen to their jazz music and lean your head back and enjoy it. The music and the smoking seem to allow you to let go of all your bad energy.

*

“hey…..hey you… you alive?” you feel a hand on your shoulder as they shake you. You wake up suddenly and grab their wrist about to bend it back, “woah woah, I’m not here to hurt you, kid” you hear the voice as you regain your eyesight rubbing them to see clearly. You see an impoverished man “uh hi” you mutter out your throat dry, “hey you look familiar, you come here often?” he asks you as he hands you back your now put out cigarette. “uh thanks for putting that out and yeah, I usually sit at this tree often” you croak out “Oh yeah, I’ve seen you here multiple times. oh here, this might help” he takes out a canteen and hands it to you and you cautiously eye him as you reach out to it but stop yourself “It’s not poisoned or anything. It’s just water.” You take his canteen and slowly bring your lips to it and take a sip and drink the water “thanks” you gave him a smile and sit up “so who are you?” you ask him as you look around, you must’ve been asleep for half an hour to an hour. “I’m Gommu, I live over in that bush” he pointed towards it and you scratch your head _Gommu, that name sounds familiar…_ “wait, are you the same Gommu that helped Team Avatar?” you look at him. He smiles bright and proudly “the very same” he points to himself. “so what’s a fella like you doing passed out here don’t you got a bed” he changes the conversation back to you. “huh? Oh yeah I do, but I just really enjoy the scenery here. The sounds of the waves, the feeling of the earth, the wind, I guess all there is missing is the fire and you’ll have all the elements.” Gommu smiles and nods agreeing with you “yup, which is why I live like I do. The nomadic vagabond culture is the best” he falls back putting his arms behind his head and smiles gazing up at the first starts appearing in the sky. “I remember nights I would go camping, I traveled a lot in my youth and gaze up at the stars, but I like sleeping in a bed, it beats the hard ground” you laugh then look around once again “hey Gommu, you hungry?” you look over at him “eh, I can eat. You want to fish in the river?” he asks excitingly, you chuckle “um, I don’t think we that’s legal, Gommu. No, there’s a diner close to here. My treat.” You offer as you begin to stand up and dust yourself off.

*

You and Gommu laugh over his silly stories of having to run away from a guard while he and Korra were fishing in the river. “it was weird seeing a water tribe girl frying up some fish with fire bending, but who am I to judge. All I wanted was them tasty-smelling fishies” he told while he munched on some rice and veggies. You laugh “I can’t believe Korra was fishing in the river, well now that you mention it, I can totally believe it.” You laugh some more as you put some duck into your mouth. Gommu tells you all about his time with Team Avatar down in the sewers. “wait you were a former telegraph operator for the United Forces?!” you almost choked on your food. “yup!” Gommu smiles “that’s so cool! I’ve always wondering how to send a message, but never got the hang of it” you remarked “eh it’s a trade and a skill to practice, but once you got it. It’s stuck in your brain” he poked at his temple as he squinted at you. You smile and nod as you pay for the meal and the both of you head on back to the park. “thanks, Gommu” you say to him quietly as you make way to his bush. “for what? If anything I should thank you for that meal” he rubbed his belly as he picked at his teeth. You smile “I was feeling sort of down earlier, but you helped distract my mind away from it. All my friends are out of the city at the moment. I’m glad I have at least one friend still in Republic City” you pat his shoulder. “eh don’t mention it, kid. Whenever you need a talk or got any tasty-smelling fishies. You know where to find me” he fingers guns you and winks. You wave at him then put your hand in your pocket and feel the packet of cigarettes then stop Gommu “Hey Gommu, you want this carton? I don’t really need it nor want it. Trying to break the habit. Maybe you know someone who wants it” you hand it to him, and he puts it in his pocket “sure, I know some folks” he gives you a salute as he runs over to the bush and dives in and you walk away out the park. You inhale and exhale deeply feeling a new sense of peace wave over you, something you felt lost without. But you stop dead in your tracks, _where the fuck is Nox_?!


	7. Bruising

You run to the bar and don’t see Nox anywhere you push the doors open and look for Chen. “Chen, please tell me you know where my bike is.” He dries some glasses as he thinks back “yeah, your buddy took it.” You scratch the back of your ear “what buddy?!” you slam your fists on the counter “hell, how do I know what buddies you got, kid” he snaps. You groan rubbing your face, _shit what the fuck am I to do._ You walk out the bar and head on home. You’re kicking rocks, when you walk to your garage and open it. Your eyes widen “Nox?!” you gasp as you close the door behind you and run to your bike. Making sure the bike is totally safe and nothing is missing. You breathe out a sigh of relief, but quickly look around. _How did Nox make it home? Who brought it home?_ You slowly creep to the door leading inside the apartment and open the door stepping inside. You put your arms up in front of your face as you slowly check out your place. You slowly put your hands down when you see Lin, sitting at your dining room table, drinking tea, “wondered when you’d make it back” she stated as she looks through the newspaper. “what are you doing here? You’re the one who got Nox?” you stammered trying to make sense of the image you’re seeing in front of you.

Lin sighed as she looks up at you “I was driving home from work when I saw your bike parked outside the bar. Couldn’t find you asked the bartender who told me you had left a while ago. Didn’t know where though just that you stumbled out after refusing his offer to call you a cab.” Your cross your arms and huff looking away. “I parked my car at my place and walked back to the bar to get your bike then drove to the park, since I know you’re always there. Went to the spot and you weren’t there. Checked all over the park then came here, you weren’t here either. I didn’t know where else you could be, so I figured you’re going to make home at some point.” She shrugs she looks up at you “to be honest, I was worried about you. Didn’t know if something had happened.” She confessed and you drop your arms down softening up, “you…. you were?” you say surprisingly but tense back up “well I’m safe as you can see.” You walk up and go to your liquor cabinet getting a couple of glasses and a bottle of whiskey “are you were just to see if I’m still alive or were you wanting to finally talk?” you pour two shots worth in each glass and set one down to Lin before putting the bottle down. Lin doesn’t touch the glass as you sit down across from her and take a sip. “what’s there to talk about?” Lin says flatly and you groan “How long are we going to do this little game, Lin?” you spat out at her. “no one is playing a game here y/n” she eyes you and you return her glare “you could have fooled me” you muttered under your breath. “what was that?”

You look up at her and stand up pushing your chair back and slowly walk over to her you hand brushing along the table “you know you haunt me, Lin.” You tell her as she watches you move towards her “how so?” she got up and faced you

“You. could have. Fooled. me, Lin.” You spoke slowly as you enunciate each word while you inched closer to you “we’ve been basically living a domesticate life together. My sleeping over, almost every night. Being a warm body to you. Catering to your every need. Trying to prove to you that you deserve just as much love if not more than everybody else. You’re incredible but you don’t seem to see it. You’re giving me all the signs that you feel something for me, but you’re preventing yourself to get it. Give me something, Lin. Give m—” Lin cuts you off by grabbing the back of your neck, pulling you to her and kisses you deeply. You stiffen up a split second before you relax under her grasp wrapping an arm around her waist as you kiss her back deeply, lifting her up and sit her on the edge of the table.

Semi-hushed panting. Hot breathes exchanging in between. Lips moist and swollen with the urgency and passion between the two of you. You groan when Lin bites on your lower lip and tugs on it, you squeeze on her thigh making her bite on your harder. You pull your lip back then tilt her head so you can kiss the crook of her neck while you bend her sleeves off of her armor. Lin sighs contently as she runs her hand up the back of your head gripping onto your hair, a moan escaping her lips while you kiss her neck as she runs her legs up your waist wrapping her legs around you. You lean up and look at her your eyes darken with lust as you look at her rubbing her waist as you rest your head against her letting out a sigh of relief. “was that the something you were hoping for?” Lin smirked and let out a laugh. You smirked back and look at her “it’s something alright” you lean down and peck her neck “stay with me, for the night” you mumble while Lin rubs the back of your hair and gives you an “okay”. You stand back and grab her sleeves as she slides off the table, you slide your hand into hers and pull her to your bedroom. You set the sleeves in your dresser as Lin bends her armor off and sets it beside the sleeves then closes the doors and pushes you onto the bed. You kick your boots off and prop yourself up on your arms as she takes her boots off then climbs into bed and straddles your waist, you lay down and run your hands up her thighs then rubs her waist. She runs her hands up your abdomen her nails grazing against your skin under your tank and she lifts it up taking it off you. She tosses your shirt aside “You’re not completely forgiven but…. wait for me?” she looks at you as she puts her hands on the side of your neck. You nod and kiss her wrist softly “always, you’re worth the wait” giving her a verbal confirmation before she leans down and starts kissing you. You run your hands up her sides before putting your hand on her neck as you thumb brushes along her jaw. She grinds her waist against you, and you groan against her lips, you wrap your arm around her waist and pull her down on the bed getting on top of her. Lin holds onto your face while you make out she slides her tongue inside your mouth while you run your down her body then slide it back up under her shirt and lift up the helm until it comes off her before reconnecting your lips with hers. “you’re so beautiful” you whisper against her lips and she gives you a small smile, before you scoot over and wrap your arm around her and pull you close spooning her. You lean in close and slowly kiss her running your hand up and down her abdomen. Your tongues dancing with each other trying to claim dominance of one another. You made out with Lin until your lips were bruised. Only pulling back to regain your breath before kissing those lips you’re addicted to. Lin enjoys the taste of your lips thought your breath has a mix of alcohol and a now faint taste of cigarette smoke. Lin turned onto her back so she could face you and have your bodies flushed to one another. y/n kissed you with such care and passion as if you were the only person that mattered. The kissing didn’t stop until the both of you were left breathless.

*

“I can’t believe you let her kiss you” Lin muttered as she played with your fingers, “it happened so fast, I didn’t know what was going on…I was unwrapping my bindings of my arms when she surprise attacked me” you laid your head above hers as you have your arm around her and watch her fingers play with yours. “I witnessed it…. I was walking past when I saw you push her back and heard what that little bitch said…” she sunk her nails into your wrists, and you bite your lip groaning slightly from the slight pain. “you suck at turning a person down, way too nice. I would have gotten her arrested for assault” she scoffed loudly. you sighed “yeah…I was. I didn’t want to be harsh.” You sigh but move some of Lin’s hair a bit to the side and kiss her neck while mumbling “But I don’t want to talk about her” she sinks back into you then you pull your head back, “You told me to stop trying. I figured what you wanted was space. My drunk mind ended up playing with me.” Lin turned her head over her shoulder to look at you “yeah, you changed into a different person.” You laugh “no, that’s my professional side. I should bring it out more often around you. Everyone else has seen it. Saikhan hates me.” you laugh some more while you trail your fingers around her waist. Lin chuckles a bit then gets serious “I know you’ve been patient with me these past months. I appreciate it. I admit I do have feelings for you, y/n. I just need you to continue exercising patience, until I’m ready.” You listen to her while you play with each other hand until you interlock your fingers with hers and bring your hands up to your lips and kiss the back of her hand “of course, Lin. Whatever you need. I’m here with you” you rub the back of her hand with your thumb then let the silence settle down before talking again “so you were jealous” you smirked as you can’t see Lin’s face, but you can sense her rolling her eyes.

*

You’re dead asleep catching up on the sleep you’ve missed after that drunken night. You have your arm around Lin’s waist holding her close as you lay on your side. Lin hasn’t fallen asleep yet, she turns around in your embrace to look at you. She watches you sleep putting her hand on your chest as she senses your breath and pulse. You feel calm and looking so peaceful while you rest she runs her hand up to your cheek and her lips curl up when she sees you lean into her touch. She strokes your cheek softly as she analyzes every detail on your face then she gently pushes you onto your back careful not to wake you as she rests her head on your chest and drapes her arm around you. You settle into the new position and run your hand up her arm as she pulls the covers up on the both of you as she fell asleep.

*

Lin dreams back of that scene at the training ground and remembers listening to your lame excuse to get your way out. She felt a bit amused as you got flustered and guilt from that little scene that you didn’t really cause. She knew you were getting mad from her lack of emotion as she kept calm. She did get surprised to watch you get mad and step into her personal space then walk away and you made your final outburst _“she’s not you, Lin!”_ she remembered those words clearly. y/n sounded so sure of herself when she said it, not a detection of a lie. Kids, drunks, and when you’re at your wits end are when the truth comes out. Lin had a lot experience with truth spilling while having drunken fights with Tenzin about the topic of having kids. Honestly, watching y/n flare up and that vein that showed up on her neck was surprisingly attractive to see. y/n was so sure when she said it and fight back at you. Most people were too scared to look her in the eye let alone fight back so watching y/n standing her ground, was something new. When she dismissed you it gave her time to think things over about how she felt about you. y/n did push that secretary away and brushed her off. Lin knew she was wrong about telling you to stop trying, of course she didn’t want you to stop. If anything she wanted you stay. Stay with her. Keep doing whatever it is that causes her heart to skip a beat when she sees you. 

Lin would never admit it out openly to you about her jealousy, but even she can’t deny that slowly--Incredibly slowly-- her walls were breaking down brick by brick as she’s hesitatively falling for you as well. She hasn’t been able to get physical with you just because of the fear of getting hurt. She’s had one night stands after Tenzin, but even she knew this relationship she has with you is different. It took a couple years before she took that next level with Tenzin, for Raava’s sake. Though it’s easy for you two now since it’s just the two of you here in the city, but once the rest of Team Avatar and when the rest of the gang come back she wonders what will happen. She’s taking it one pebble at a time; she hopes you will be patient enough to wait for her.

*

You wake up slowly opening your eyes and see the sun slowly creep through the shades as you rub your eyes. You look over and see Lin resting her head on your chest and her arm around you, you softly stroke her arm and kiss her forehead. You look over and see the clock reading at 6:44 am, you beat the alarm by a minute, and you turn it off. You lay back and enjoy yourself for a moment before you dreadfully have to get up and wake a peaceful Lin. “Morning, Lin. Wake up” you whisper as you gently shake her, causing her to stir in her sleep but tightens her grasp on you. “Wake up, Linny” you stroke the small of her back. Lin opens her eyes and lifts her head looking at you as she points a finger at you, “don’t call me that”. Your lips curl up in a faint smirk “it got you to wake up though” you lean in and giving her a kiss on her lips, causing a groan, her lips feeling sore, she gives you an eyeroll from her as she pushes herself off of you and stretches as she sits up. You sit up and stretch your arms above your head then get out of bed, “want to shower first” you yawn as you ruffle your hair then grab a towel for her setting it on the bed. “I’m going to make some tea” you head out the bedroom. Lin heads into the shower while you clean up the mess from last night and prepped some tea for Lin letting it steep so once she gets out it’ll be ready. After she gets done in the shower you go in after and quickly wash yourself and get ready for work. You’re almost done as you walk out the bedroom putting your Lieutenant jacket you watch Lin drinking her morning tea. “how’s the tea?” you smile as you start buttoning the jacket up while you look at her “it’s good, the elder that taught you would be satisfied” you smirk as you finish then fix your collar, “that’s quite the compliment,” you laugh softly as you grab your mug and drink your tea. You enjoy the morning with Lin as you sip on tea and some sweetbread.

You’re walking out to the garage and open the door “I can give you a ride to work unless you want me to drop you off to your car” you turn to her she thinks about it “Just take me to my car”. You nod as you grab a helmet for her and you’re about to start the bike before you stop and look at Lin. “Before we go outside this space, I get you want to keep this a secret and I’m completely fine with it. But I insist you be woman enough to take me. I won’t have you making light of my feelings or making light of yourself—as if you’re not worthy of them. Because you are worthy, Lin. You’re a generous, good-hearted person, and you deserve to be loved. Deeply, truly, well, and often.” You take her hand and pull her close to you before giving her a soft kiss. Lin kisses you back and presses her hand on your chest as she steps back bringing her thumb up and wiping the corner of your mouth “You’re not going to be this mushy all the time right?” you laugh as you give her the helmet and tilt your head for her to get on the bike, “only when it’s necessary” you respond back as you put on your helmet then start the bike and drop Lin off at her place before going to work.

*

“TR 1,2, and 3 confirm your locations, over.” you radio quietly as you look out towards the truck waiting for everyone to confirm their spots. “you’re sure tonight is the night?” Lin looks over to you while you’re squinting your eyes looking out at the darkness a faint light from the streetlights, “I’m positive, Chief”. Five minutes past by and you check the clock on the dash of the squad car, 10:25, you’re about to offer to do a quick sweep around the dock when 2 cars and a moving van pull up around a corner and everyone ducks down in the squad car. You slowly peer over the dash and watch Viper’s men pull up. Seven men step out of their vehicles, the other two in the van get out and walk to the back opening the door to bring out the crate. Viper and six are surrounding watching the two men bring down the crate. You and the squad watch this go on as you start to give the signal to the other unmark car to prepare to head out. The land team starts moving in stealthy, getting closer to the triad. “Shark-squid be at the ready, over” you radio the water team handing the portable radio to an officer, then look at your team then at Lin giving them a nod. “everyone ready” the officers get into their stances “on my signal” you order before you stand and start walking to the back of one of the cars. You peer over readying your cables before giving Lin the signal, a tap on the left side of your temple then pointing forward with two fingers. The squad move in as you walk up to the triad “RCPD! we have you surrounded. Don’t make this worse than it has to be.” You stand in your fighting stance looking around for any sudden movements as the men look. A waterbender makes the first move sending a stream of water bullets your way. You kneel down quickly sending out your cables wrapping around an earth and firebender, pulling them back and slam them to the ground, wrapping them with a piece of your cables before climbing on the car and rushing into the scene. You hear the commotion from the triad as they scurry around trying to get away and fight the police. Fire benders and water benders putting up a big fight, you dodge attacks coming from your right. You side flip but then a large amount of water comes to your left side and knocks you down a couple feet back, your back hitting the front bumper of one of the triad’s car. 

You groan as you rub the back of your head, but you quickly get up and draw out your blades from your armored sleeves. A waterbender comes rushing you sending shards of ice towards you which you cut through with your blades then you draw them back in once you’re close enough and go into some hand to hand combat with the bender. The fight in a fast pace, trying to fight off every wave they send, you find an opening and sweep kick the waterbender out then block his water punches. You bend your cables around his wrist and slide him across the dock and metalbend the bumper of a car around the guy’s waist. You look over and watch Lin and your team of officers take out the remaining men. You and Lin walk over to the shipment while your officers arrest the gang members. You open the crates with your cables to reveal the gloves as well as another crate that was packed with electric batons the chi-blockers used. “Nice job, Lieutenant” Lin smirks as she crosses her arms “All in a day’s work, Chief” you smirk back.

As you make your arrests there are reporters there to take pictures and get any comments from the scene. Lin handled the reporters while you help your men put the perps into the squad cars, “reporters are the worst. Why can’t they let us just do our jobs” you mutter as you glare at the paps. You send your officers off to get the perps to booking while you walk back to your squad car when there’s a call coming in “Come in CB-01, do you copy.” You grab the receiver and answer “10-9” you wait for the station to relay the message again “Can CB-99 code 13 a meet” you listen and look over at Lin who is busy at the moment “uh, negative, CB-99 is code six with paps at the corner of 38 and Zen, over” you let go of the button and listen for a response “Darn paps, when CB-99 is done have them report back to the hole, over.” You smirk “copy, 10-4” you finish the call as Lin is walking back and gets into the car. “Darn reporters are the worse” Lin mutters as you start the car you let out a laugh “tell me about it, by the way you’re needed at the station. Apparently President Raiko is there so it can’t be good.” You report to her as you drive back to the station while Lin groans in response “it’s never good with Raiko…”

*

“what do you mean there’s a war starting?” Lin asks President Raiko in her office with Saikhan and you in assistance. “The Southerners are forming a rebellion against the Northern water tribe. Tensions between Southern and Northern Water Tribe people are rising ever since the assassination attempt on Southern Water Chief by the Southern rebels which was conspired by Avatar Korra’s parents.”

Raiko explains then sighs deeply

“now the Southern Water Tribe citizens here in Republic City are going to form a peaceful tribe march tomorrow night. I need every officer there to make sure this doesn’t become another fire into this war. I will not allow Republic City to go down, we are coming to some progress since the Equalist Revolution. I assure you can handle this Chief Beifong” President Raiko looks at her which she keeps her cool stature “Of course, President Raiko. I’ll have the very best there.” 

“I hope so” Raiko responded back then looks over at Saikhan acknowledging him then he cocks his head over to you with a confused face “you, never met you” you extend your hand to the president “Lieutenant y/n, Mr. President” you greet yourself to him he gives you a surprising nod “ah yes, I’ve heard good things about you. Rose the ranks quicker than most rookies.” He took your hand and shook it firmly when you returned. Your lips curl up in a smirk “thank you sir, I take my work very seriously. All to keep Republic City safe.” You let go of his hand and stand at attention “That’s what I strive for. Glad to have you on board.” He looks at you then turns out to leave the office before he stops and turns back around to look at Lin, “oh Chief Beifong, I have word that Avatar Korra is already on route back to Republic City. If you can brief her on the situation that **_she_** caused.” He groans out before leaving out the office and heads out the station. You look over at Lin and Saikhan before excusing yourself to leave them to their own meeting about the march and the current situation in the city. You head to your office and get your things locking it afterwards before heading home. _What the hell did you do Korra_.


	8. Explosive

You’re watching Detective Lu and Gang arrest some thugs as you notice Lin walking out to the docks to welcome Team Avatar. “take them to get booked and processed boys. We’ll meet you back at the station” you order them as they nod and get into the squad car. You turn to walk down the dock as you hear Korra raise her voice at Lin, “I didn’t start a war! Well, I did, but it’s more complicated than you’re making it seem.” You stand besides Lin as you cross your arms and let out a disbelief laugh “Korra, I was really hoping to greet you back without some sort of damage or danger to the city. Your little stunt down south has caused waves here.” You frown a bit while you wave at Mako “Welcome back, Mako” Lin looks over at him “Mako, I want you back on the beat. There’s going to be a Southern Water Tribe peace march tonight. I need you there to make sure things don’t get out of hand.” She orders him. Mako straightens himself ready for the call “I’m all yours” Korra quickly jumps in “I’ll go too”. You’re about to say something before she keeps talking “the people of the south need to see that the avatar is on their side in the fight against the northern invaders.” You ball your fists as you look down resting your forehead on your fist. _That is literally the worst thing you can do._ “Great. That should calm them down.” Lin deadpans as she rolls her eyes turning around and starts walking away from the group. You watch her go before you hear Mako telling Korra it would be best for her to sit the march out. “what?!” she turns to Mako “uhh… I agree with Mako” you cut in “you too?!” Korra looks at you “I just think having you there blatantly supporting one side will only make things worse.” Mako explains his reasonings and you stand by him to agree “You can assist, but it would be best for you to not participate. You can supervise and make sure everything is running smoothly along with Chief Beifong but make it clear that you’re not favoring either side. I understand that you are from the Southern Water Tribe you want to take their side but you’re the Avatar. As the Avatar you must stay neutral.” You advise her trying to calmly explain the situation to her. Korra shakes her head and raises her arms out “no, I’m not neutral. The north invaded my home. The only reason I’m here is to get the Republic to send troops to help the South.” You sigh while you rub the back of your neck then see Asami “Welcome back, Sami. Glad you made it back safely.” Varrick steps into the conversation “Look, Zhu Li’s already scheduled a meeting for us with President Raiko tomorrow. We’ll get him on board.” He smiles confidently Mako shrugs feeling done with the conversation “whatever. I gotta go to work.” You follow Mako’s lead “yeah, same here. You can ride with me Mako.”

“I better go check on my factory” Asami follows “I’m going to find out about this peace march” Korra angrily calls out as she starts walking down the dock as well.

You and Mako jump in the car as you wave Asami goodbye as she gets in her car that she has sent for her when she arrived. “So things didn’t go well since Tenzin left?” you ask while you drive. “I mean it was okay, Korra opened the Southern spirit portal it seemed to be a step in the right direction, but then Unalaq put a blockade, and began a revolt from Varrick.” You turned quickly to Mako “Varrick?!” you turn your attention back to the road to which Mako nods “yeah, apparently Varrick got the rebels riled up and abducted Unalaq. Korra stopped them. There was a trial but Korra found out that it was all a ploy Unalaq set up. He wanted to make Korra and the tribe believe the trial was fair. Spared Korra’s mom and change the death sentence to life in prison on Tonraq and the rebels so he could get Korra on his side and Tonraq out of his way. Unalaq was responsible for Tonraq’s banishment from the tribe. He hired barbarians to attack their tribe so he could become chief. This whole thing was just a giant setup for Unalaq to gain power. We helped Korra break the rebels and her father out of prison, which basically initialize the civil war.” You pull up to the station and park the car as you process all the information, “The North has more resources and power than the South. So that’s why Korra is going to try and get the Republic to send troops” you hold your chin. “it’s not going to work. I’ve met Raiko and he doesn’t want to get the Republic involved in any of the other nation’s fights, but hopefully they can convince him at their meeting though.” you say as you both head inside the station and walk Mako to his desk “I’m actually glad you’re back by the way, beats having to deal with Lu and Gang” you tilt your head over to their direction. “I’m glad to be back” Mako takes a seat at his desk as you nod “alright, well I’m gonna figure out the security for this peace march tonight” you wave as you head to your office.

*

You’re standing in front of the Southern Water Tribe cultural center with Mako as you’re going over the security detail. “Hey Mako, can you do a sweep over on the right side of the center. The march is about to reach the center and we don’t want any surprises to happen.” You look over at him “yeah, you got it” he turns and walks over to that direction as you stand beside Lin. “so far, everything seems to be peaceful. All things considered” You put your arms behind your back while you look out at the crowd. “Hopefully it stays like that. Doesn’t help that Korra is leading the march.” She groans with her arms crossed on her chest. You grimace as you watch the northerners throwing exclamations out at the southerners as they make their way down the street peacefully, then your eyes land on Korra on Naga and you sigh. You understood where Korra is coming from. She’s a Southern Water Tribe citizen, if you were in her place you would support the tribe too. Your mother was part of the Southern tribe before she left when she married you dad. But, she’s the Avatar, the image of peace and neutrality. She can’t be showing favoritism to one side, especially when a war is breaking out. You just hope her actions tonight doesn’t cause any more trouble. you look down and start to turn around “I’m going to assist Mako on his sweep.” Lin nods but has her focus on the march as you walk over towards the right side of the center. You’re about to turn the corner when you hear explosions go off down the corner then put your arm to cover your face from the pressure coming from the explosions going off in the upper floors. You prop yourself up and stand as you watch the explosions go off your jaw dropping, “What…” your eyes widen not believe what you’re seeing. You remember Mako and run down the empty street along the side of the building, “Mako!” you call out and see him at the back of the cultural center. You sprint over to him and put your hand on his shoulder “you okay?!” he turns over to you and nods “yeah, I’m fine” you look back at the building “can’t believe the northerners would do this” you walk Mako back to the front of the center. “I don’t think it was them…” he spoke out “of course it was them, who else could it be. This is a north and south problem” you reasoned with him then turned your direction as you both walked towards Korra who has started to personally try to put out the flames “The Northern Water Tribe is out of control.” She irritated “I saw a firebender running away from the blast. The north might not be responsible for this.” Mako explains of what he saw during the explosions. “of course they’re responsible. Who else would it be?” she spat out as she turns around to help the water brigade to put out the fires. You turn to Mako “The Northerners have been kind of hostile. Maybe one of them got the firebender to start the fire, Mako” you turn to him. He looks down to think about it then looks back at you “Maybe, but I don’t know. Something doesn’t sit right.” You analyze him then back at the building “maybe you’re overthinking it” you pat him on the shoulder before walking away.

*

After last night’s explosion the tensions between the water tribes have gone to an all-time high. You’ve been working all morning trying to find the person’s responsible a task President Raiko wants done as fast as possible. You groan as you have little to no leads as you go over what little evidence you gathered that night from your detectives. You’re pacing in your office while looking at your white board, _How did the northerners get a handle on explosives. There was evidence of gunpowder at the scene. Mako mentioned he saw a firebender, but there is no way one firebender could set off all those explosives consecutively_. You slam your hand on your desk frustrated _damn, I’ve been going over this every possible way. I’m keep coming back blank. The obvious fault is the northerners. They are the only ones who could benefit from this bombing on the Southern cultural center._ “I need a break” you murmur as you step out your office _maybe some coffee and a couple minutes of stepping away from the problem can help clear your mind and try again._ You open the door of your office and notice Mako at his desk you think about asking him about the case, but you decide not to. You grab some coffee and Mako looks up and sees you getting up from his desk and walks over to you “hey, y/n, can we talk?” you look over at him without turning your body “uh, sure. Let’s go back to my office.” you glance over to Lu and Gang just lounging around at their desk “don’t you two got something to do than waste up space?!” you bark at them “uh yeah lieutenant, sure thing” they get up and walk away. You open the door to let Mako in before closing it after you then take a seat at your desk, “I’m guess you want to talk about the bombing” you take a breath before you sip your coffee looking down at your papers. “have you found anything?” he asks you to which you slowly shake your head “there was traces of gun powder but no fuses other than that there was little evidence of what’s left from the scene.” You mutter “I ID’ed the man I saw last night, I gave the picture to Lu and Gang. They just stashed it in their desk” he states and you groan pinching the tip of your nose “hold on” you get up and walk out your office only to come back a few minutes later “this the one?” you hand it to him he looks at the image then he gives it back to you and you look at the face “that’s the guy I saw sneaking out of the building right before the explosions. He’s a member of the Agni Kais. Someone must have hired him to make it look like northerners attacked the cultural center.” He explains as you look at the image of the man then over at your reports then sighs. You look at him as you set the image down. “well did you learn anything about that remote control I found at the scene? That’s gotta be the key to finding out who’s really responsible.” “no, that remote is useless. We analyzed it but nothing seemed to happen when we tested it out. Whatever its function is we don’t know what it controls.”

“I don’t know Mako…if what you’re saying has some truth then who would want to blow up a building. No one is to benefit from this other than the northerners.” Mako groans in frustration as he looks down “I know how this all looks but trust me. Someone else is responsible. It’s not the Northerners!” You stand up from your desk and walk around started to get frustrated “okay, fine let’s say it is someone else. Who would do such a thing? Whose to benefit?” you ask him to which he doesn’t come with an answer “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out, trust me.” He looks up at you and you sigh “we’re trying everything we can to find the persons responsible. There’s even more pressure now with Raiko down our backs.” You resolve as you walk back to your desk before asking him “how’s Korra handling all this? I wonder how her meeting with the president went." Mako starts to frown looking away “she’s furious at President Raiko, like you said he’s refusing to send troops to aid the south. She’s planning to go over Raiko’s head and ask General Iroh for assistance but I….” he trails off and you look up “you what?” he looks conflicted as he looks down at the floor “I told Raiko of Korra’s plans, he’s heading over to the Republic forces to stop General Iroh.” You frown a bit as you inhale deeply “that’s…. unfortunate.” you draw out before clearing your throat “look, I’m all about helping the little guy, I understand President Raiko’s reasonings. This war has nothing to do with the Republic. It’s between the North and Southern water tribes. So why should we have to send our resources and soldiers.” Mako crosses his arms getting upset as what you’re saying sounds familiar “believe me, I basically told Korra the same thing.” He huffs “How did she react?” you leaned back in your seat “she got mad for me “taking his side”. She has this thing with sides. Called me some beat cop who just wants to work against her.” You shake your head in response “she’s too emotional… she’s being irrational. She still has more ways to learn about how the world works, especially with this whole diplomacy thing. I’m not a fan of politics but this is how the world works.” You state before you stand up and finish this meeting “If I find anything else. I’ll let you know. Hopefully you’ll do the same thing” you open the door for him “y/n, I know we’re not partners and I’m a rookie cop but as a friend…. trust me when I say that I have a strong feeling about this.” He looks you in the eyes and you notice the confidence in his voice before nodding “I hear you, Mako”. He walks out and returns to his desk as you close the door left with your thoughts. _Can I trust Mako and believe his theory?_

*

You hear a door slammed open outside; you wave it off thinking it’s just Lin whose been stressed after her meeting with Raiko. _if you don’t get me results soon. I’m going to find someone who can_. The nerve of that guy, I get he wants to find whoever is responsible, but you know all he wants is his reputation in good standing with the city with his constant photo ops. Your ears perk up when you hear a desk being thrown across the room and you get up opening your door and see Korra and Mako in a middle of a lover’s quarrel. “I can’t constantly be worrying about keeping you from making another huge mistake.” Mako shouts at Korra angry at her for coming at him at his job. “well I have a job to do too, only it seems like you’re always standing in the way of me getting it done!” Korra sending back just enough heat that she is receiving. Mako gets riled up and starts to spat back “well, I guess if we’re both putting out jobs first, maybe there’s no room for our relationship!” there’s a sudden silence in the room before Korra talks again sadden at Mako’s remark “so what? Are you breaking up with me?” she asks him, and you see the look at Mako’s face as he doesn’t look back at her at first “yeah. I guess I am.” He resolves as he rests his glance at her. Korra starts to tear up and runs out of the station you frown watching the scene go down and contemplate going after her, you take a step until you notice Lin walking out of her office and stop. Her eyes widen as she sees the mess in front of her “what the flamey-o happened here?” she crosses her arms confused. Mako sighs and looks back at the Chief “I broke up with the Avatar.” Lin huffs “you got off easy. You should have seen Air Temple island after Tenzin broke up with me.” she says smugly then finishes with a smirk then glances over at you. Your eyes widen a bit hearing what she said, and a slight blush creeps up on your cheeks as you run your hand up to the back of your neck before you clear your throat “just clean up this mess and take the day off if you need to, Mako.” You look over at him. He walks over to the desk and starts picking up the desk “nah, I’m fine. Better to focus on something productive than wallow”

*

Absentmindedly you’re running circles on Lin’s waist and give her small kisses on her shoulder as you’re embracing her in bed. The past few days have been stressful so you’re glad you and Lin had time to spend any time alone even if it was just to go to sleep. “Sucks what happened to Mako and Korra” you commented of the scene from the other day. “Mako got off lucky” Lin shrugged. “Do I really want to find out about what happened on Air Temple Island? You hesitantly ask and you hear an amused chuckle from Lin and sighs contently reminiscing, “Let’s just say it wasn’t always an island”. Your jaw drops, you find that surprisingly hot by the power her bending has but terrified of that same reason, _I better not fuck up_. You close your mouth and clear your throat changing the subject “Have I told you now much I’ve missed you” you mumble against her neck then plant a peck on her shoulder. Lin sighs contently in your arms “no, you haven’t” she said out flatly. You bring your lips up behind her ear and whisper “Well I have. Missed you so much, Ms. Beifong” your voice causes a tickle in her ear and sends a shiver down her back, but she bites her lip and turns to look at you “Don’t call me, y/n” she laughs. A smile creeps on your lips hearing her laughter as you caress her body looking at her. “I can call you other names if you would like. What about baby?” you lean down and kiss her jaw. Lin groans out “no, I’m not an infant” a small chuckle escapes your lips “so that leaves babe out then” Lin side eyes you “definitely” you lift your head up and smile looking at her taking in the beauty in her face “we think of names later, right now I’m just.” Lin looks at you slightly confused as you’re just staring at her face “what are you doing?” 

“I’m just mentally recording this moment. Taking it all in. I’m incredibly lucky and thank the spirits I found you, honey” Lin feels the air sucked out of her as she listens to your words. Her eyes slightly getting emotional as she puts her hand on your neck and pulls you down and presses her lips on yours. A whisper escapes her lips as in between the kiss “honey is fine” and you nod slightly before continuing the sweet loving exchange of another’s lips.

*

You’re standing beside Mako as you watch the interrogation unfold behind the one way glass, “Asami knew it was a risk to do a shipment, but shit I was hoping this wouldn’t happen,” you cross your arms then glance over at Mako who is staring at a picture of him and Korra. You sigh looking down “have you talked to her?” you keep looking at Lin as she, Lu and Gang question the captain of the ship about the theft of Asami’s shipment of Future Industries mecha-tanks bound for the Southern rebels. “no, haven’t seen her” he sighs as he puts the picture back in his pocket then the door swings open Asami storming in “is it true?” you look over “Asami…”

“I’m so sorry. Your entire shipment was stolen.” Mako turns towards her direction.

“without that sale, I don’t know how much longer I can keep my company going. What am I going to do” she looks down worryingly. “I’m sure there is something you and I can think up. You’re smart and innovative, Sami” you put your hand on her shoulder “I’m..” Mako starts you cut in “—we’re” you glare at him and Mako sighs “ _We’re_ gonna find whoever’s responsible.”

“yeah…Chief Beifong is about to question the captain of the ship” you look at Asami then turn your attention back to the interrogation room as Mako turns on the speaker to hear in the room.

“I know it’s been a long day but walk me through what happened.” Lin begins the questioning

“we were ambushed about 30 clicks outside the harbor. We never heard them coming…” the captain laments as he retells what he experienced. “this is the third attack this week at about the same location.”

Lu gruffs as he crosses his arms “yep, and smack-dab in Republic City’s jurisdiction, which means another problem for us. All this stress is gonna turn old black beauty gray.” You roll your eyes as you hear Lu talk thankfully they can’t see you. Gang proceeds to go on “it’s gotta be northern water tribe. They’re trying to stop supply lines to the south.”

Lin puts her palms on the table and slightly leans in “I agree. Is there anything else about the attack you remember? Anything unusual?” she questions the captain and he looks back at her as he thinks back to the scene “there is one thing. The bombs exploded in a way I’ve never seen before. They didn’t have fuses. It was like they were being detonated remotely.” Your eyes widen “wait, that sounds like..” “—like the bombs at the cultural center.” Mako darts out to the door “wait, where are you going?” Asami calls out to him as he starts running out the room “I gotta grab some evidence”. You look down to the ground _the cultural center had the same bombing as this attack, but the attackers were waterbenders. Could there be some truth from Mako?_

“Asami I heard the news. I can’t believe they took my fifth favorite ship in the Varrick industries fleet! Named her after my mom. Rest in peace, Rocky Bottom.” He puts his palms together and you listen to him… _he’s surprisingly taking this well. I mean sure he’s rich, but I would be furious if I lost my ship._

“without the money from that shipment, Future Industries is almost broke.” Asami sadly states

The speaker statics as Mako busts into the interrogation room and you look up “Chief, I think there’s a link between this attack and the attack at the cultural center.” Lin looks pissed at Mako for once again busting in without permission. “what do you think you’re doing?!”

“Shit, we should head over there. It’s not going to be good” you say and the three of you walk out of the room and start walking to the interrogation room.

“Mako. Leave. Now” you hear Lin order Mako as you three walk into the room. Varrick surprisingly bright “Great work, everybody. Another open and shut case for the dynamic mustachioed duo!” you suspiciously glance over at Varrick, _open and shut case?!_

“wait, I think Mako might be onto something.” Asami jumps to which gives Mako the courage to turn to Lin “Chief, I know it’s a long shot, but I have an idea how we can catch these guys!”

Lu and Gang smirk slightly amused to Mako's attempts to help solve the case once again and were thoroughly amused to see Lin being pissed at Mako. “oh yeah, let’s just all listen to the rookie” Asami starts to get mad and comes to his defense “he’s doing a better job than you.”

You don’t really know what to say or what to believe instead you rather watch this whole scene play out while you take in the information. “who’s hungry?” Varrick pops up from under the table. “ENOUGH!” Lin yells in the room. “I don’t want to hear your lame-brain rookie ideas. You’re a best cop, not a detective. Now hit the street and do your job!” She orders Mako out the room point to the door. Lu and Gang start laughing, and you eye them you start to ball your fist “Lieutenant y/n, escort Ms. Sato and Varrick out of the station. Now.” She orders at you giving you a glare. You nod as put your arms down to your side “yes, chief”

you calmly start to walk them out the room and meet up with Mako who is sulking outside. He looks up and groans out loudly “Lu and Gang are idiots. I hate them and their stupid mustaches.”

“you’re right, they are.” You slide your hands in your pockets while you roll your eyes. “Forget them. What’s this idea of yours?” Asami asks Mako and he looks over at you “are you going to rat me out to the Chief?” he glares at you, you sigh deeply looking back at him “no Mako, quite frankly I’m interested in this idea of yours. I agree, the attack on the ship and the one at the center are practically identical. Whoever attacked the center are probably the same ones that attacked Varrick’s ship. I want to solve this case just as much as you do, so whatever idea you have that might bring this case closer to being solved, bring it.” you look back and forth from Asami to Mako. Mako gives you a nod “Alright, a sting operation” you take a step back “you want to pull a sting operation?” you raise your eyebrow listening to his idea “yeah, I was thinking we’d set up a bait ship, take it out into the open ocean, and capture whoever attacks it.” Asami gets excited “let’s do it.” You wave your hand stopping her “it’s not that easy, Sami. Without the power from the police force, this plan won’t work.” Mako groans as he agrees “and Beifong already said no” he slightly kicks the metal column.

“We can make it work, the three of us.” Asami looks at the two of you as you think about a plan. “I don’t know. I don’t want to go behind Beifong’s back.” Mako responds “and if this plan fails… imagine how much it will damage Future Industries’ reputation. You’ve been working so hard to build it back up. Another stunt and it’ll bring you to the ground, Asami. If we do this, it should be Mako and I, you should head back to your company and find a plan or think of ideas to get Future some cash flow” you look at her trying to reason at her. Mako joins you “if Beifong finds out, we could get suspended or worse we could get kicked off the force.” Mako and you look at each other before looking down thinking whether this plan is worth it. Asami steps forward and puts a hand on each of your shoulders bringing your attention up to meet her gaze “Guys, I need your help. My mom is gone. My dad is in jail. Future Industries is all I have left of my family.” You sigh deeply “I get it Sami, I really do” Mako looks down “I want to help, but this is more than we might be able to handle.” You jump in “where would we even get a ship from?”

“You guys need a ship? I got a ship!” Varrick pops up behind you causing the three of you to jump. “I want in on whatever you’re talking about. I love being in on plans.”

You look around between everyone “um, no offense, but why would you offer a ship when you just had one stolen? Don’t you have any sort of reservations?” you ask him crossing your arms. He frowns at you before smirking “I got plenty of ships, so you guys wanna clue me in?” he looks at all three of you “the less you know, the better.” Asami tells Varrick. “Perfect! I love not knowing things.” You rub your temple conflicted _should I really put my job on the line just to see whether or not Mako is making sense on his theory or play it safe and let Asami join Mako instead_. You hear Mako’s voice and it knocks you out of your thoughts “alright, I’m in. Let’s get these guys.” Asami turns to you “y/n? You are joining Mako, right?” she looks at you, her eyes pleading for help. You gulp as you glance at Mako then back at Asami and sigh “I told Mako I would try to trust him. So that’s what I’m going to do…” you look at them determined.

“alright, so we’re doing this. Let’s get these guys” He looks at you to which you nod back. There is no going back. As much as you'd hate to do it, now you have to hide this from Lin. _Great_.


	9. Trust and Suspicions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You have to decide whether to take Mako's word or believe Lin. You start to make your own thoughts and investigation on the culture center explosion. How will you take it and will you be able to figure it out.

The plan is in place while you’re standing beside Mako and Asami, watching her workers place dummy crates onto one of Varrick’s ship. “the ships all loaded. Let’s get this sting operation going.” You’re about to start walking to the ship when Mako stops you “not yet, we need extra manpower.” You turn around and face them “who do you have in mind?” Asami looks at Mako “what about Korra? No better muscle than the Avatar.” You quickly look at Mako and speak up “I don’t think Korra is around” Mako nods “yeah, actually, she’s, um—she’s out of town right now.” He eyes you before looking down. Asami glances at the both of you “everything okay with you and Korra?” Mako brushes her off “yeah, yeah. Forget about Korra. I’ll talk to Bolin.” You look at Asami and rub the back of your neck you see Mako is far away now before you lean over to Asami “they broke up, but you didn’t hear that from me” “what? Why didn’t he say something?” she looks at you and you shrug “they had a big fight at the station. Maybe he’s not ready to talk about it” you frown before you wave her goodbye “I gotta go handle some stuff at the office. Make sure I stay doing my normal routine and not bring any suspicion to the Chief. If there are any updates let me know.” You wave again as you walk away to the station.

*

You walk up towards the desks of officers when Lin calls for you “Lieutenant if you can step into my office.” all the officers look at you and start murmuring. You gulp as you look down and make your way to her office, closing the door behind you taking a seat across from her. “Yes, chief?”

“you have any update on this case. Raiko is on my ass on finding the culprits” she groans as he pinches the bridge of her nose. “you’re guess is as good as mind, although…” you trail off and Lin looks up “what?” she snaps. You try to ease into it inhaling deeply “I think Mako might be on to something.” Lin groans out loudly “not this shit again… You’re not seriously believing Mako, right? It’s so far stretched”.

“I get that, but he’s doing more detective work than Lu and Gang.” You grip the arms of the chair sitting up. “that’s not Mako’s job to begin with” she snaps as she starts to glare at you raising her tone. “then who else is going to do the job!” you stand up out of the chair getting heated to Lin’s stubbornness on not wanting to listen to you “Lu and Gang are two lazy fools that don’t want to do anything. I’m grasping at straws here and Mako is the only one who has any sort of idea on what happened that night! He witnessed a man run out the direction from the building and drop that remote control. Which is what set off the explosives. That same sequence happened on Varrick’s ship during the theft--.” Lin jumps out of her chair and slams her palms on the desk “you better watch your tone with me, lieutenant.”

You put your hands on the edge of her desk and lean in to face her “you want progress on this case. I want this case solved just as fast as you do, Chief, but you don’t want to listen to Mako or trust what he has to say.” You glare at her and she snarls not liking, “what does Mako have to do with the case?” she barks out “You assigned me to put Mako down as MY shadow. I have a built a partnership with him. One that has built with trust and believing oneself while out on the field. I’ve kept quiet throughout this whole Mako butting in at the wrong times but I’m going to finally add my input. We’re supposed to trust each other on the force especially by the time we move up and get partners. How are we supposed to do that if we’re just bashing the rookies down, he’s showing interest and dedicating himself to solve this case but what are we really doing if we’re just going to brush him off.” You slam a hand down on the desk then stand up straight and pace the room. “So who does super-cop Mako think is responsible” Lin exasperate amusing you for a second as she drops down at her chair folding her arms. You sigh deeply as you rub your temple before you tell Lin Mako’s theory, “The guy Mako identified is a member of the Agni Kai Triad. He believes the triad was hired to bomb the cultural center during the peace march. We have no clue yet on who hired them, but Mako is adamant that it wasn’t the Northerners.” you put your arms behind your back as you look at Lin and she eyes you “This has Northerners written all over it. No one else would benefit from seeing the center bombed and ambush a ship war provisions. Yet, you believe _him_?” she says irritated and frustrated at this whole situation. “you took me back on the force because you trust my judgement, perception and intuition. Something is telling me to trust him. Call it a gut feeling. Mako hasn’t failed or disappointed us on the force,” Lin rolls her eyes and rubs her face “I’m not going to have my mind changed because you have a “gut feeling”” she groans out. “we’re not getting any closer just arguing here. I’m going to go find new leads” You sigh “I agree” she snaps as you walk over to the door putting your hand on the knob you stop for a second “All I’m saying since Amon, Mako has earned some trust. You’re usually always right, but this once… you may be wrong, Lin” you look back at her, your eyes softening before you open the door and walk out the office, head out the station. Getting ready for the night, you planned to change and take a taxi to the docks. It’s now or never, you have to prove to Lin and to yourself that Mako might be right after all.

*

“So when you asked for help you really got help from the Triple Threats” you lean on the railing as you look down at the water as you kick a small pebble off and watch it get lost in the clash of waves. “they’re all I could think of, plus they owed me a favor” he said, and you roll your eyes “I just hope this doesn’t blow up in our faces. Sorry I’m not trusting to triad members” you mumble while you eye two-toed ping as you tug on your jacket collar. You should’ve layered more clothes on after you changed from work. _The wind is really cool in this area_. “I used to work for them” Mako commented and you nod “yeah, I remember, but you did it to survive. You don’t do it anymore. They choose to do it.” You look out into the dark horizon, not a sight of light. You let the silence take over around you as the ship makes it way along the route where Varrick’s ship was on until Mako comments “this is right around the area where the attacks happened. So we should keep our eyes peeled and stay quiet.” Two Toed Ping starts rambling a bunch of nonsense and you lean your head down letting a groan escape your lips. Mako turns to Ping “Two Toed Ping, please” he stops then proceeds to ask Mako “so what’s it like dating the avatar?” both you and Mako sigh as you step away and go sit on a nearby bench. _Imma let him handle that_. You try to block out of the conversation and keep your eyes peel, your mind races back to that conversation you had with Lin. In the background you hear Ping calling out to Viper and Shady Shin about how disbelief he is that Mako was the one who broke up with Korra. You smirk and silently laugh hearing them tease Mako then look away crossing your arms, _it’s been a while and so far and nothing_. _Maybe this whole thing is a bust_.

Another 30 minutes of no action happening out here in the middle of the water you turn to Mako “you ever thought about cutting them off” you ask Ping as he shows you and Mako his toes and how he got his nickname “they’re my lucky toes”. Mako groans as he paces around and stops “wait, guys. do you hear that?” you look around then back at him “I mean besides the chatter and the waves clashing against the ship. Nope. Nothing. Just like the last past hour.” You huff as you slouch against the wall of the ship. Mako groans “Ah! What’s taking so long?” Ping chills back and puts his arms behind his head like he has no care “you just gotta relax, like me. sit back, knock your boots off enjoy the sound of the waves”. Mako growls “I’m gonna check out around the ship” Mako walks away leaving you with Ping “did Mako really break up with Korra or is that a bunch of phooey?” he leans over to you and you scoot over before getting up “that’s what he said, didn’t he” you walk over to the railings and look down at the waves. “I’m gonna go for a walk I’ll be back” you notify Pin as you walk down along the railings as Ping waves you off dozing into a nap. You keep walking as a hand comes out from a corner and pulls you towards them you’re about to fight them when Mako puts a finger on his mouth signaling to stay quiet. You gain your footing and stand “what’s wrong?” you whisper “I just overheard Shady Shin and Viper. We’ve been double-crossed. We have to get off this ship” Your eyes widen at the realization “who the hell would do that?” you whisper as you both start to run in the direction of the speed boats. You get stopped by the triad “where do you two think you’re going?” Viper smirks Mako grunts as he throws a fire punch at the men and you jump over the railing into the speed boat starting it up while Mako cuts the ropes. You slam on the accelerator and gun it back to the city while Mako fire bends at the two speed boats. You try to keep the boat steady to help Mako until Viper starts to waterbend large shards of ice out of the water and you start dodging “hang on!” you yell out as you start to maneuver around them. You think you’ve gained enough space between them when you’re suddenly sent up into the air by a large waterspout of water. “Holy shh….” You scream out you metal bend the seatbelts around you and Mako to prevent the both of you to fly off from the boat. You grab on tightly on the steering wheel feeling your stomach turn as you come crashing down. Making sure to keep control you land back on the water and continue on nearing closer to the City. You can see the city skyline coming nearer, “Almost there!” you see several other ships in the horizon and maneuver around them, Mako turns around “They’re getting closer!”. “not for long, grab on to something” you grip on steering wheel as you see two ships crossing each other and you narrow your eyes calculating the right time to turn and get in between the two ships. “watch out!” Mako scream you yell back “I got this! You worry about Viper and his men!” switch gears and speed off. Mako looks back “Nice job! One down, one to go.” “yeah but where’s--“You swerve avoiding colliding into Viper who came from a different direction you try to gain control of the boat trying to prevent it from tipping over. The boat stalls out and you try to get it started back up “Mako, the boat, we’re stalled!” Viper collides into your boat head on and Mako fights off with Viper while you run and jump over to the other boat tearing off a piece of metal from their boat and wrapping it around the driver trapping him on the steering wheel. You look back at Mako who got knocked back into the seats of the boat and you snarl running over to Viper and jump over kicking him down on his back before throwing him back in his boat. You jump over the windshield and try starting up the boat as it sputters out until it finally roars to life, you switch gears and time it right to send the boat to dive into the building coming up fast. You swerve to your right avoiding collision and drive off along the harbor. As you and Mako watch the boat crash into a warehouse “so any ideas?” you yell out “someone paid the triple threats to keep us distracted.” You grimace “distracted from what? Did you offer them anything?” you look over at Mako before turning back to the water ahead. “Asami offered some vehicles and stuff….Asami…we gotta check out the Future Industries warehouse!” Mako yells as he holds onto the edge of the boat. You nod and make your way.

*

You call Asami using a nearby phone and tell her to hurry to the warehouse. You walk over to the light switch and turn it on, it finally illuminates the now empty warehouse. Your jaw drops as you ball your fists “whoever paid the triple threats stole everything.” Mako comments “I can’t believe we fell for this” you look down your eyes tearing up. Mako puts his hand on your shoulder “I’m sorry, y/n. This is my fault; it was my idea.” Asami runs over to the both of you and stops abruptly as she sees the scene behind the two of you and her eyes widen. You look at her and your eyes water “Asami…I’m sorry” Mako explains everything that happened and Asami looks in horror “I’m ruined…my company…it’s over…” she looks down in defeat. “we should check your other warehouses. Maybe they didn’t have time to hit them all.” He tries to give Asami some hope. Asami’s shoulders lower as some tears start to form at the corner of her eyes “you don’t understand. Everything I had was in here.” “we have to search the place for evidence. If I can find a lead…” he goes off trying to think of a plan “Just stop. We’ve failed, Mako” you beg him as you turn around your back away from the warehouse heading towards the dock in front of the building leaving Mako and Asami alone together. “it doesn’t matter anymore” Asami says quietly. “we can figure this out.” He quickly interjects “it’s over. I give up” she looks down admitting defeat. Mako turns to Asami and looks into her eyes “well, I’m not giving up on you.” Asami looks up with tears in her eyes, looking into Mako’s eyes and leans in giving him a kiss. You turn around and watch the kiss unfold gasping Asami steps back “sorry, I—” Mako looks around awkwardly “uh…it’s—it’s okay.um…anyways…I gotta run. I’m gonna find out who did this, with y/n’s help, and I know just who to ask.” 

*

Asami offers to give you a ride home you offer to drive and stay the night at her estate. She refused, wanting to be left alone. You sighed and nodded understanding and bid farewell as you step out of her car waving her goodbye as you head up to your place. You shower getting rid of the harbor smell off of you and change into some fresh clothes. You remember Lin and look at the clock it’s 1 in the morning you grab your uniform jacket. You walk over to bowl and grab your keys and get on your bike, speeding over to Lin’s place. You look over and knock on the door not getting an answer. _She’s probably still back at the station._ You get back on your bike and head over to the station.

You walk up inside the station almost bared besides the two officers at the entrance and a couple of officers at their desk sleeping. You quietly walk past them and knock on Lin’s door “yes, who is it” you open the door and call out to her “Chief” she looks up quickly putting her glasses down motioning you to step inside. You walk in and close the door behind you. “where have you been?” she asks eyeing you suspiciously “I was investigating on the case.” you’re just now coming back? You should’ve just gone home.” she looks down at the paperwork “no, after I was done I went over to Future Industries trying to help Asami with her company troubles.” You explain then stop “I checked to see if you were home, but I forgot I was looking for Lin Beifong, so I came to her real home” you teased. “after our discussion in the office you just left without another word. Wondered if it would be a repeat of last time” she muttered you shake your head “whatever happens at work stays at work.” You approached her as you pulled a seat to sit at the side of her desk. “Plus, if I know anything about you… I figured you wouldn’t sleep or try to rest until you’re closer to solving this case. So maybe… you wouldn’t mind my help.” you lean over at her as you look into her eyes putting your hand on top of hers. Lin gives you a soft smile “that’s your job, lieutenant”. You smirk and rolls your eyes “yes, chief” you playfully salute then grab a file and start rereading the reports.

After half an hour you set down a cup of coffee in front of Lin while you take a sip out of yours and get back to reading your notes before looking up

“there is something that keeps gnawing my mind.” You speak as you close your file looking out at nothing

“what is it?” Lin looks over at you

“Varrick” you mutter

“Varrick?, What about him?” she says coolly as she flips a page

“His indifference about losing a ship was just weird, don’t you think?” you arch your eyebrows as you think back to that scene in the interrogation room.

“Varrick has plenty of shipping boats, he owns a global shipping enterprise” Lin mutters back.

“Well yeah, exactly. He was transporting materials that he could profit and lost it. Yet he showed no anger or frustration after three attacks occurred in the same week. Most businesses would be furious if they lost potential profit. Isn’t that a bit peculiar?…unless” you stand and slowly walk to the window looking out at the empty low lit square.

“unless?” Lin perked up looking over to where you walked off to.

“unless Varrick purposely blew up his own ships…” you turn around to face her

“you’re seriously not proposing that Varrick destroyed his own ships for what?” she takes her glasses off and sets it down on the desk as she turns her chair to face you.

“I know that sounds preposterous but is it really that crazy?” you step towards her

“why would Varrick blow up his own ships. Like you mentioned he wouldn’t want to lose a potential profit if he’s getting money from his deal with Future Industries”

“yeah you’re right…” you trail off as you look back over out the window and let Lin go back to her paperwork.

“you’re sound like a conspiracy theorist like Mako” she jokes

You smile at her but slowly frown at your thoughts

*

You’re lying back in Lin’s bed with her sleeping beside you. You’re both exhausted with staying in the office so late but even though your eyes feel heavy you’re unable to sleep. Your mind won’t stop thinking back on your suspicions about Varrick. Lin stirs and turns over on her other side shifting her body as she scoots over so she can rest her head on your chest putting her hand on your chest. You put your hand over hers and curl your thumb around her finger as you kiss her forehead watching her sink down comfortably and go back into a peaceful sleep. You smile enjoying watching Lin sleep then look up at the ceiling going back to your thoughts. _The only people that knew about that sting operation was you, Asami, Mako and Varrick. You’re obviously not it, Asami would never do that to her own company. Mako…you don’t trust he would betray Asami like that or that he would drag you down like that, so that just leaves…Varrick. But why… ‘he wouldn’t want to lose a potential profit if he’s getting money from his deal with Future Industries’_ Lin’s voice replays in your mind. You analyze that for a moment, _Varrick wouldn’t be trying to overtake and gain control of Future Industries_ , would he? _He wouldn’t play that dirty, right?_


	10. Betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Mako are close to busting the person responsible until a major twist comes your way resulting in a heated discussion with the Chief of Police.

You didn’t get much sleep, only for a couple hours waking up before Lin as you got ready for the day. Lin wakes up when you’re about finished buttoning up your shirt and sit on the bed tying your boots. “where are you off so early in the morning?” Lin yawns as she sits up. “Future Industries’ warehouse got broken into and ransacked last night. I’m having Mako be at the site to investigate while I make my way over.” You stand turning around to look at Lin “why didn’t you wake me up? I’ll get ready right away” she gets upset as she jumps out of bed. You stop her putting your hands on her arms and give her a smile “You needed to rest, and I’ve already got it handled. You’re busy with Raiko, the bombing and the ambush on Varrick’s ships, you don’t need another case piled on. Especially with Raiko down everyone’s throats.” You look at her before walking out and grabbing your coat “Let me handle this investigation, as Lieutenant it’s part of my job.” You eye her before you keep talking “Asami wants this done privately so that the media and other businesses don’t catch wind of it. Once I’m done I’ll head back to the station.” You walk back to Lin and give her a kiss “I’ll catch you at the station, honey” you give her another kiss. and a smile before waving goodbye, heading out the apartment not letting Lin a chance to respond. Lin is confused to that whole scene standing in bedroom replaying it over then shakes her head and gets ready for work since she’s awake. Once you’re out the apartment your true emotions surface with worry and slight guilt for what happened to Asami’s company. 

You meet up with Mako back at the warehouse and go over every inch of the space for any clues or evidence. Everything was spot clean, and you groan in frustration then tell Mako about your thoughts about Varrick. “Ever since I saw how calm Varrick was in that interrogation room something hasn’t felt right with me.” Mako nods in agreement “yeah, besides the three of us, he is the only other person who knew about this sting operation.” You look at him “exactly. Hey isn’t Bolin with him now recording that Nuktuk mover? Maybe you can catch Varrick and try to get some information out of him to confirm our suspicions.” Mako thinks it over and nods “alright, will do.” He starts to walk away before you call out to him “hey Mako…” you run after catching up to him “I’m sorry for how things have been going on back at the station with Chief Beifong, Lu and Gang. Even though it seems they don’t believe you, you still got me. I got your back. Nothing is adding up and Varrick is another piece of the puzzle to solve this once and for all.” You put a hand on his shoulder. Mako looks at you and gives you a curt nod “thanks y/n, I appreciate that. Glad to have someone on my side.” You smile and nod back at him “anytime, just remember me when you make detective”. You laugh before waving him off and you walk around the city.

*

Walking around the streets while you supervise your officers handle a local robbery investigation at a tea shop when Mako walks up. “hey, can I talk to you, it’s about Varrick” you look around and nod motioning to get into the squad car and he starts talking “It’s Varrick, he set us up. I went to the set where Bolin was rehearsing a scene when these explosives went off the exact same way it did at the cultural center it was rigged by a remote detonator. It’s exactly like the one I found at the scene.. its exclusively a Varrick Industries product.” You perk up excitingly “that’s great! Let’s go arrest that jerk!” Mako stops you “wait, there’s something else you should know…Varrick bought a controlling interest in Future Industries.” Your face drops drastically “No…” _Varrick now holds a majority of a Future Industries voting stock._ You shake your head “alright, we gotta find more proof to really nail Varrick. We gotta tell Asami, she wouldn’t want to be in business with him if she finds out what kind of businessman he is” Mako shakes his head “I’ll go talk to her, you’ve already pulled your neck out and I’m already on the hot seat with the Chief. I’m not gonna let you lose your job along with me. just you having my back is enough” you chuckle in response “you sure this isn’t you trying to look like a hero in front of Asami and take all the credit, just say so.” You look at him raising an eyebrow “what! No. that’s not it at all” he flusters then gets out the car walking away. You’re laughing under your breath as you get back to work.

*

You’re in your office when you’re reviewing the incoming correspondence and response to Department entities, outside agencies, and citizens; as well as check the daily activity reports; on crime and accident. You’re waiting on any updates from your sources on the Triple Threats hire trying to find whatever evidence to pin on Varrick. You’re concentrated on your work when you get a knock on the door, “come in” you call out as you hear the door open. “Lieutenant, any word on the Future Industries?” Lin steps in and you stand sighing “no, I’ve had everything swiped and tested. I’m waiting on the results. The only lead I have is based by witness accounts and sources that it was the Triple Threats. I got Mako and few officers patrolling the area. Hopefully they left something behind or dumped any evidence in an alley somewhere” You put your arms behind your back. Lin closes the door “how’s Ms. Sato handling all this?” you look down and shrug “she’s devastated but thankfully by the grace of Raava, Varrick came in and saved the day. He bought a controlling interest in Future Industries” you reported to her trying to stay calm and giving her a smile “Asami is ecstatic that her company is saved” Lin looks you over and slightly nods “well that’s good news.”

Lin turns away to head out before she stops herself tapping her nails on the door contemplating “how are you feeling with all this?”. You’re looking down as you pick up some reports “what do you mean?” you settle some papers down. “you mentioned Asami being a close friend since working for Hiroshi Sato.” You perk up “so you do listen to my stories, Chief. That’s nice to know” you smirk as you look up. Lin puts her hand on her hip “I have perfect hearing.” She rolls her eyes. You laugh softly “well hearing and listening are two different things, but to answer your question….” You stop amused at the image you see Lin. You’re eyes are glancing down admiring Lin’s body as your eyes trail down her arm until you rest your sighs on her hips, you sit down as you try to concentrate and continue “I’ve been stressed. The Cultural center, Varrick’s ships, and now Future Industries’ warehouse getting ransacked. It’s a lot, but not impossible. Honestly, I don’t know how you do it.” You laugh surprisingly. Lin smirks “you’ll get used to it.”

You turn to her “what about you… how are you feeling?” you look at her eyes. Lin stays quiet as Raiko’s voice plays into her head. _if you don’t get me results soon. I’m going to find someone who can._ “I’m fine.” You take a step forward “you sure? I can only imagine the stress you’re under..” Lin brushes you off “yes” You smirk as you glance down at her lips then down along her curves before looking back up at her eyes “you know what I won’t get used to..”

“hmm?” Lin looks at you and gets curious to why you’re walking towards her. “being around you at work. You’re distracting….” You whisper as you stand right in front of her putting your palm on the closed door as her back is pushed against it. She starts stuttering “wha—what do you mean” you smirk seeing Lin at a lost for works “I think you do…” you whisper as you lean in and kiss her deeply. Lin stiffens up putting her hand on your chest as she kisses you back then remembers where she’s at and push you away, “stop, not here” you put your hand over hers and she slides it away “I’m sorry”. You drop your arm away from the door as Lin grabs the handle “don’t let it happen again” she gives you a playful smile before she steps out your office. _You might’ve messed up, but you stole a kiss from Lin Beifong, and you survived._

*

After lunch you’re walking back to the station at a nearby hole in the wall diner when you get stopped by Lin at the lobby “Lieutenant y/n” she barks out. You stop dead in your tracks and turn your attention to her where Lu and Gang are walking behind her as they approach you, “yes, Chief” you stand at attention putting your arms behind your back. “We’re going to bust Mako. Figured you would like to join in.” she snaps as she motions the three of you to follow “Mako?!” you look shocked as you look at the two detectives who are smiling smug. “Mako: the crooked rookie cop. Got a nice ring to it.” Lu teases as Gang laughs. You’re glaring at the both of them “what’s going on? Why are we about to bust Mako?” you look at everyone hoping someone would give you an answer. Lu and Gang take the front seat while you and Lin go in the back “you were so sure about trusting Mako. You’re going to see who Mako really was” Lin looks at you as she crosses her arms leaning against the wall of the squad car across from you. You lean forward resting your arms on your knees as you put your head down between your legs with your hands behind your back as you groan softly. _What the fuck is going on. This can’t be true. Have I been played this whole time. What the fuck Mako._

The four of you walk up the stairs to Mako’s apartment “knock on the door, Lieutenant.” You bring your hand up and let out a soft sigh before knocking, Lu shouts out “Police!” you hear hurried footsteps coming towards the door and see Mako open the door. With Asami behind him. You’re the first person he sees before looking around at the rest of the party “y/n…” you give him a concerning look whereas Lu and Gang are leaning against the wall and doorframe smirking while Lin wears a disapproving face. Lu steps up “Hey, Mako. Hope we didn’t interrupt you two lovebirds.” Lu and Gang push past you as they make their way in while Lin gives you a slight shove to get you to walk in the apartment. “what’s going on” Mako asks defensively while Lu and Gang start their investigation “we busted some Triple Threats who said you hired them for a job.” You look at Mako and Asami but also catch glances at whatever Lu and Gang are searching for. Mako sighs and gives in “It’s true. We were trying to figure out who stole Asami’s stuff, so we hired them for a sting operation. I’m sorry for going behind your back.” He apologizes to Lin before Lin cuts in “who’s we?” Mako looks at you and Asami and you give him a slight nod, but he slightly shakes his head. You ball your fists and take a step forward “Chief, Mako and I performed the sting operation. Though I didn’t know about the Triple Threats until the moment we were already on the boat.” Lin shocked with your revelation “Asami and I hired the threats not, y/n. she had no clue.” “I’ll deal with you later.” Lin snaps at you before turning back to Mako, You bow your head down and take a step back. “According to the Triple Threats, you did more than that. They said you helped them steal a warehouse full of Future Industries’ property.” You look up flabbergasted by what the triad stated against Mako “That’s crazy!” Asami yells out. “you’re gonna believe a bunch of criminals?” Mako gets angry by the accusation against him “that can’t be right” you look at Lin. “I have to follow up on a lead” Lin states as she has her arms crossed. You look over at Lu who was now searching the closet and comes out with a duffel bag he seems happy and excited at what he found “well, looky what I found: cash…and these.” He pulls out what appear to be explosives. You quickly look to Mako when Lin starts interrogating him “what are you doing with explosives, Mako?” he is quick to respond, “I don’t know where those came from” which proceeds with Gang taking his hand cuffs out and starts cuffing Mako “you’re under arrest.” Mako starts getting mad “none of that is mine.” Gang scoffs “should’ve known you’d hook up with your old pals. Once a Triple Threat, Always a Triple Threat.” You notice Mako glaring at you almost like he’s trying to telepathically send you a message: _Don’t believe them._

 _Once a Triple Threat, Always a Triple Threat_ your head starts racing at what’s transpiring in front of you. You’re so confused to what is going on you don’t know what to believe. Everything you and Mako have worked on seemed to make sense then you watch the evidence unfold in front of you.

Asami tried to defend Mako “this has to be a mistake.” Lu turns to Asami “sorry to break the news to you, sweetie, but your boyfriend’s just a crooked cop. That sting operation was just a way to lure you away from your warehouse.” He laughs happy to see Mako in handcuffs and finally being taken down before adding “he was using you and apparently Lieutenant y/n the whole time.” You look at Lin your eyes softening as you trying to comprehend then look at Mako. “that’s not true, Asami. I would never do anything to hurt you.” Mako turns to you “you know just as me this is all a ploy. It’s Varrick. This is all Varrick. He set me up.” Gang laughs and rebuffs his claims “yeah, it’s Varrick’s fault. Varrick” both him and Lu laugh and scoff. You look at Asami and put a hand on her shoulder “I’ll get to the bottom of this” you squeeze it gently before leaving Mako’s apartment and watch the detectives push Mako in the back of the squad car with you and Lin climbing in after him. You sit beside Mako whereas Lin sits across the both of you. Lin just gives you a glaring look that you know means she’s about to chew your ass out once you get back to the station, “where do you live, Lieutenant” you look up at her and narrow your eyes “why? You want to search me now?”.

“seeing as it was you and Mako at that sting and there was evidence at his apartment it seems only logical to search your place as well” she glares back at you. “y/n had nothing to do with this. The sting was all my idea.” You put your hand on Mako’s shoulders and shook your hand “it’s okay Mako. The Chief is just doing her job.” You turn your attention to Lu to give your home address, “let’s go, I have nothing to hide” you look at Lin as you cross your arms and stare at her for the remainder of the ride.

*

“I can’t believe you lied to me, y/n!” Lin yells as she looks through your apartment personally. She ordered Lu and Gang to stay at the car to watch Mako while you and her to inside your home. Your eyes widen with the realization _She called me by my name…. We’re still technically on the job yet she called me by my name. This isn’t Chief talking, this is Lin. She’s taking this not just a hit against herself as Chief but also against her. She’s furious. She’s bringing the problems from work into your personal lives._ You opened your mouth to try to talk slightly stuttering “I--I didn’t lie. I just refrained from telling you the whole truth. I knew you would react this way if you found out I was helping Mako.” You tried to explain yourself. Lin whipped around shouted “That’s not even remotely appropriate and you had the nerve to think hiding the truth would be better?!” she pulled a drawer with her cables and let the contents drop then drops the drawer itself on the ground. “You weren’t going to listen to Mako, so I did. As Lieutenant I have a right to direct my own investigations and since Mako was doing his own as well…. I decided to join him and listened to his theory. Varrick is the culprit. He masterminded this whole thing to get the Republic to help fight the Northerners in the Civil War.” Lin groans “Just accept that you got fooled by a former triad member and let alone a rookie cop, y/n!” you start to get ticked off “you should learn to trust people more often. Why can’t you just open your ears and listen to the proof we have. If you don’t want to believe in Mako and I then believe in the evidence, Lin!” you shout at her. “We’re presenting you the proof but you’re about to make the grave mistake in having Mako booked”

You stop to calm down and step towards her. “Lin…” Lin tosses your clothes out your closet as she looks around and scoffs “don’t you _Lin_ me” and she turns back to you “was this just some big game to get me to trust you so I end up the fool while you run around doing crimes.” She crosses her arms, your eyes widen “What the hell, Lin. You can’t be serious!” you breathe out in disbelief “before that sting operation I have never worked for any triad members. How could you even accuse me of that!” you raise your voice. “how would I know you could have been lying this whole time” she rolls her eyes as she keeps looking around. You exasperate loudly “so you’ve lost all trust in me, just like that? That fast” you swipe your hands horizontally almost drawing a line. Lin doesn’t give you a response back and you take that as your answer and look hurt. “I see…. well I don’t regret what I did. I still believe Mako and trust in his judgement. If he says it’s Varrick then it’s him. Once I get back to the station, I’m going to prove Mako’s innocence and get him out.” Lin finishes searching your place and doesn’t find anything “it’s clean” you roll your eyes and motion at the mess she made “not really, but I get the gist” you lean against the wall folding your arms. You wait for her to get to the door so you can follow suit, but she stops you “you’re not coming back to the station. You’re suspended.”

You glare at her “whatever for?”

“Let’s see…. how about undermining my authority! You deliberately went behind my back, lied about it and got fooled by a crooked cop, a rookie no better! I can’t let you off scots-free. It’ll make me look weak.”

“but—”

“You’re suspended. You’re off this investigation. Anything concerning this case will go to Lu and Gang. That’s final.” She grabs the door handle. The way this whole conversation went you start to question on the stability between the two of you romantically. You need to know that everything is okay and that she hasn’t let this investigation come between the two of you. 

“what about us…” you speak up looking at the back of her head watching for any kind of sign her body can give. Not a twitch or a jerk no indication that she either heard or wants to respond. You have a feeling that you’re not going to like what she has to say. The past heated discussions haven’t ended great, but you hope this would different, but this “fight” has been the worst one yet. This investigation has her now questioning herself about you. She stands there for a moment not turning to look at you,

 _if you don’t get me results soon. I’m going to find someone who can._ Raiko’s words echo in Lin’s mind as she has her hand on your door handle.

“there is no **_US_**.”

“We keep work and life separate, remember. You can’t let your career rule your life, Lin!”

“My career **_IS_** my life”

“Lin, we’re not schoolchildren you can’t keep breaking relationships off when we have a bad discussion.” You calm yourself and try to reason with her as you step towards her to try and reach her arm. Lin looks at you contemplate, but she returns to her harden exterior and huffs looking back at the front door “can’t break something when it was never established. It wasn’t a relationship; we were just seeing each other”

“Lin, please…. trust and believe me. I would never jeopardize my job or you for that matter if there wasn’t some truth to Mako’s saying. We can work this out…. ** _together_** ” you finally make your way to step behind her, your breath hitting the back of her neck, “honey…. please” you whisper to her. The little hairs on the back of Lin’s neck stand up. You reach your hand up to her hip when Lin turns her head to you giving you a cold hard glare before she opens the door and slams it shut behind her causing some frames to fall off the wall. “ **You’re making a mistake. Lin!** ” you shout at the door, making sure Lin hears as she walks away. You rub your face as you groan sliding down wall putting your hands over your head as you tug your hair. Lin left you with this mess. “Lin…”


	11. Bonus Scene: Questioning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Lin searches your apartment you get brought in for questioning.

You spent the remainder of the night cleaning up your apartment. You were just about to finally head to bed when your phone rings and you grudgingly answer it. “Hello, y/n residence” “y/n, morning.” his obvious identifiable gruff voice that irks you as you sigh “Saikhan” you state plainly “No need to tell you the news, huh?” “Chief informed me. I guess you’re no better than me” you can sense that smirk on his face and you snarl looking at the receiver “I don’t know about that. At least I wouldn’t kiss some councilman’s ass” you smirk and can hear Saikhan grunt at the other end. “Since you know, what’s the point of the call?” “You need to come in for questioning” “Questioning? Sure” 

“I can get my secretary to send a car” Saikhan, surprisingly nice, confused you since the both of you don’t have the best relationship. He probably finds this amusing. Is he pitying me? “That’s not necessary, Saikhan” you grit your teeth as you hold the receiver to your ear “I don’t have to see you right?” You ask and you hear him sigh “I hope not. Just get your ass here. Chief’s waiting”

“Well best not have her waiting long then. I’ll be right over within the hour”

*

You shower and change into a white flowy button up and some black pants. You turn yourself at the station and get escorted over to the interrogation room. Pak and Lee greet you with Lee taking out a pair of cuffs. you sigh rolling your eyes as you bring your wrists up and let Lee cuff you. You voluntarily walk over and get sat down in the interrogation room with your wrists cuffed "the cuffs really necessary, men. I thought this was a questioning" you smirk as the two officers walk by the door "Sorry, just following orders"

“Who’s?”

“Chief’s”

you shrug as you bring your arms up on the table "I get it, roughing me up for her? How is she by the way?" you look at your two fellow officers who glance at one another before one of them looks at you. "She's pissed off at you, detective"

"Not surprised, when isn't there a time we don't piss her off" you give them a smirk and they shake their head "no, y/n. She's pissed. Never seen her this upset. It’s like she took it personally"

"what do you mean?" you suddenly lean back in the metal chair intrigued at what you're hearing. "Well I mean Mako is her favorite. We all see it even though she tries not to show it, she’s kept tabs on him since he was in the academy." Pak stated and Lee added "and you....well you're the lead detective on her team. You two are always figuring out cases so for Chief to have both her rookie cop and detective suddenly under fire...."

"It's suddenly put a red dot on Chief's back from the press and public. Questioning her position as chief" you finish as you look down and sigh feeling guilty for your actions. "Lin Beifong is an amazing Chief. No one should question her skill sets or her role as chief of police."

A window opens from the wall "is y/n ready for questioning?" a Chu asks and the two men look at you and you nod as they give Chu a nod and they walk out. A minute passes by when Lin walks in the room and sees your head hanging low "Ready to confess your involvement?" she asks sternly with her arms behind her back.

you keep your head down not meeting her eyes lacing your hands together"You can't arrest me. You don't have proof of evidence. You've searched my apartment. Trashed it for precise." you look up and give her a face "thanks by the way. I'll send over the clean up bill" you wittily remark.

"I can arrest you for simply being an accomplice. You confessed to working with him on that stupid stint operation" She snapped "You have me there" you smirk looking at her, trying your best to seem unbothered by your pain of not being able to have her in your arms. You close your hands as you try to compose yourself and not lose focus, you inhale deeply as you close your eyes for a moment "you alright there?" you bring a finger up to Lin so she'll give you a moment before lifting your head up and opening them. Seeing her again after that heated discussion causes your throat to tighten up and dry a bit. you lick your lips and gulp to keep your throat wet. "I'll tell you what I know. I have nothing to hide." your voice is soft yet strong.

She scoffs “Only because you got caught.” she pinches the bridge of nose and sighs “Let's cut to the chase" Lin pulls out the other chair across from yours and takes first notice at your eyes. They show a deep green, the golden specks that Lin would sometimes get lost in, gone. The slight bags under your eyes to give the indication that you haven't slept at all. She stays hardened, still upset that you lied to her.

"Sure, but may I have some water? my throat is kind of dry" you give her a soft smile as you tug on your collar and unbutton the top button of your tunic. Lin grants your request and soon there is a tray with two glasses and a pitcher of water. Lin reaches to pour you a glass and slides it across to you, you give her a nod and drink half the glass, "thanks, Let’s not waste your time. What do you want to know?" you get serious as you look at her stoic. 

"Start from the beginning, when and where"

"Right after questioning the captain. Outside headquarters. Asami wanted answers. Mako had the idea. Varrick offered the ship."

"and you?" Lin interrupted as she analyzed your face and you returned her gaze sitting up on the chair moving your cuffed hands to your lap "I wanted the truth....I did it for Asami. Her company is all she has left. If the press ever got wind that Asami was involved in a stent operation. Future Industries would plunder to the point of no return."

"Answers?"

"Lu and Gang haven't moved fingers to investigate this case. I've been scrapping left and right at whatever evidence I can find. Mako is the only one who keeps having an idea, but like you I didn't completely trust Mako. If I was going to trust him I had to risk my neck to see what he was doing. So I had to go along and see what this operation was going to be like."

"Hiring the triple threats?"

"I didn't know Mako hired them until I got to the docks. I was at the office working while the deal took place"

"How can I believe you?"

"Trust?" you look at Lin then scoff looking away "Never mind, you don't do that" you lean back.

Lin grits her teeth as she looks at you analyzing her face and body language, nothing seems to set her off of any indication that you're lying. "Why keep it from me?"

your ear perks up as you look at her then at the one way mirror "anyone listening in?"

"No"

you sit up and place your arms on the table as you scoot the chair in "The less you knew the better."

Lin scoffs "How does that justify your actions. You had the chance that morning."

"It doesn’t justify it. It would've been the same discussion. How I'm being blinded by Mako. I sound like a conspiracy theorist. My gut told me to trust him so I went with it, Lin" your voice strained from the hurt, but you look down to control yourself. Lin suddenly softens a bit when she caught that strain in your voice but you continued on having composed yourself.

"I just started here in the city.... Sure, I've moved up the ranks fairly quickly, but in the chance I was wrong-Which I know I'm not wrong about Varrick-” you stressed “I was willing to throw my job on the line. No one would miss me or care if I lost my job on the force."

"That's not true. The officers would '' Lin suddenly going soft on you and your brows furrow but you brush it off and shrug "They'll move on. There will be other detectives, better ones. There won't be a better chief than you, Lin. Rather I go down before bringing you down."

Lin looks up and meets your glance "There's always another. Saikhan for instance"

you smirk and let out a laugh "we've seen just how great a job he did the last time he was put in charge. He practically torn down everything you built"

Lin grits her teeth, even though she somewhat agreed to your comments "He wasn't ready"

"Sure as hell wasn't ready. Tarrlok said jump and the son of bitch jumped." you snap

Lin slammed her hand on the table starling you a bit "that is your Assistant Chief, show some respect" she seethed glaring at you

"was" you plainly stated not showing emotion

"you're suspended, not fired"

"Right...” you look away then back at her “will you be making an arrest on me, chief?" you lean back again on the chair losing interest in the matter.

"No. There was no evidence in your apartment. There were witnesses that saw you in your office when Mako and Asami were dealing with the Triads. Your story tracks out with Ms. Sato."

Your jaw clenches when Lin mentions Asami. So she brought her in for questioning too. "So I'm free to go?"

"yes, but you're still suspended"

"Thanks for the reminder.” you say dryly “So can you take these cuffs off or should I ask the guys?" you look at her as you bring your wrists up to her. Lin stands up and takes out the key walking towards you and starts undoing the cuffs 

you look up at her as she slides the key in the socket as you spoke to her softly "you know this wasn't what I was picturing"

"what was?" Lin too focused on the cuffs

"me cuffed up with you. my image was more in the bedroom" you whispered as Lin turned the key and the cuff opens as she slips. Lin glares at you as she steps back while you uncuff the other yourself before placing the platinum cuffs on the table and handing Lin the key, "thanks" you give her a slight smirk. 

Rubbing your wrists as Lin walks to the door and knocks on it, the door opens. You stand up and walk over to the door stopping in front of Lin "I'll see you....whenever my time is done, Chief" you give her a nod before you acknowledge the officers by the door and walk down the hall. Forcing yourself not to turn around as you balled your fists at your sides and focused on keeping moving your feet forward.

Lin watches you leave a part of her hoping that you would turn around. She couldn’t help but feel conflicted and upset that she could've been played this whole time. Though nothing gave her the indication that you lied to her or had any mal intent, your breathing and heart rate was normal. there is no US. My career IS my life. Lin's own voice races back to her head and she turns away from you and walks back to her office. Lin, please…. trust and believe me. Now your voice was popping in her head. Honey....please. You’re making a mistake. Lin! 

Once Lin got in her office she slammed it shut and gripped on the edge of her desk. She doesn't make mistakes, she's Lin Beifong. Respected Chief of Police who has worked her entire life at perfecting herself for the job. She isn't going to allow some young detective and a rookie cop, questioning her skills as a cop. She beats them both on experience alone. So then why are your words ringing in her head and causing doubt to enter in her mind. There is no concrete proof in what both of you are saying, yet your voice was so sure. Lin could only focus on what she knew and could do that was keeping the city safe. What do you and Mako know that she hasn’t picked up on. 


	12. Busted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You deal with being suspended from your job. A visit to Mako might help you find some resolution along with Bolin's premiere of the finale of his movers.

The metal door slides open as you walk in and see Mako slouched on the metallic cold bed. “long time since I’ve seen you” you mutter as Officer Song closes the door behind you as you take a seat at the chair in the corner. Mako perks up as he looks at you “y/n! I see you’re not cuffed.” He signed in relief. You shook your head, but frown upset with yourself “no, but I did get suspended. I’m off the case. Chief is furious with how I handled things.” You look and leaning over with your hands clasp together. “she thinks you played me…. I’m only going to ask this once Mako, but I have to know…. Did you have a hand in stealing Asami’s property” _. Once a Triple Threat, Always a Triple Threat,_ Gang’s voice rings in your head. You look at him, analyzing him. Mako looked you in the eyes “No, I would never hurt Asami like that. I care about her” you listen to his voice, so sure of himself nothing to tip you off that you lower your head and sigh. “I know you wouldn’t, but I just had to know for sure” you put your hands over your head. “you believe me? with the whole Varrick theory” he’s surprised. He thought with the whole bust at his apartment that he lost your trust and you would turn your back on him too. Mako looks like he has some hope creeping up on him. “I thought for sure after that bust, I would have lost your trust” he looked down. The corner of your lip slightly curls up “I did think that at the time…but on the ride to my apartment and then watching Chief search my things. It became clear that Varrick wanted us handled. I’m surprised though…my place came out clean.” You look out the small opening from the door and check to see if anyone is out there before looking back at Mako as he thinks. “Varrick must’ve assumed that once Chief Beifong learned that you were involved that you wouldn’t gotten suspended or kicked off the force. I was present at every situation, the hiring, the ship, then at the mover set. I was the one doing all the digging.” You slowly nod your head understanding “yeah, I guess so. That makes sense. Lock up the badgermole and it stops it from digging any more holes.” You mutter softly then clear your throat “I don’t know what I can do since I’m off the investigation. I don’t even think I should even be here. Chief might arrest me for some lame excuse like tampering the investigation. I should go before there is any alarm” You stand up and walk over to the door, Mako stops you grabbing your arm “wait, y/n…thanks. Despite everything against me you’re sticking to believe me. I…” he looks down and you smile putting a hand on his shoulder “I trust you Mako. You’re great at your job. I know we had a rocky start when you first started, but during this whole mess I’ve gotten a better understanding of you. I’ll try and find some way to clear your name.” you squeeze his shoulder and knock on the door to be let out. Mako speaks up softly “Where’s Asami…” your face softens, and you think back at how your friend is taking this news “she’s…. trying to grasp the situation. I’m sure she trusts and believes you but….” You sigh and shrug as Song lets you out. “I’ll catch you later, Mako” you wave goodbye.

Walk down the stairs and looking around corners trying not to get caught by Lin. You’re just about to make it down the lobby when Lin walks in from the entrance and her eyes widen when she sees you. “what are **_you_** doing here. Do you not understand what being suspended means” she puts her hand on her hip. You groan out “relax, I’m not here to work. I was actually walking out.” You walk past her and she grips your arm to stop you looking over her shoulder up to you “If I find out that you’re still investigating on the case. Consider your career over.” She narrows her eyes keeping her voice down, but you can feel the anger in her tone. You put your hand on hers and peel her hand off your arm, not wanting to jerk your arm away in anger or be rude. You still love this woman even though she doesn’t agree with you. you glare back at her and give her a sly smirk “is that a threat, chief?” you look at her eyes. She snarls at you and huffs “it’s a promise, _Lieutenant” She_ rebuffs. You glance down at her lips then back at her eyes and your face softens, hurt imprinted on your face. You look away and brush past her walking out the station.

*

A strange envelope in the mail is in your mailbox once you get inside you open it. It’s from Bolin, he’s invited you to the big finale of his mover Nuktuk: Hero of the South. “Well at least something good has come out of this mess, Bolin is a mover star now.” You mutter under your breath as you put the letter down then open the box that came with it, filled with Nuktuk merch and a large poster of the mover “huh…there’s writing on the top..”

> _Dear y/n,_
> 
> _Nuktuk says, ‘Keep Reaching For The Stars._ ’
> 
> From,
> 
> Bolin aka Nuktuk aka Hero of the South
> 
> p.s. Pabu says hello and he misses you

You roll your eyes but silently laugh, _typical Bolin._ You set the poster down and frown sighing. “I guess I could go, show support to Bolin. It’s not like I got anything better to do.”

*

“man this collar is kind of tight” you tug on the collar of your shirt as you sport out your pant suit as you walk through the crowd to get inside when you catch a glimpse of Lin and you groan “of course she’ll be detailing the security tonight. President Raiko is here after all” you rub your face then make your way over to her direction. “didn’t ping you as a mover fanatic” you speak up and Lin turns around when she hears your voice “what are you doing here?” she snaps and you smirk “I was invited, what about you?” you look back at Lin, her eyes dart to check your outfit out. While your eyes dart to her lips as she fashions a dark shade of red. “I’m here for only security purposes. President Raiko is in attendance so I have the best to keep watch.” You look around and let out a laugh “yeah… sure, the best” Lin’s cheeks redden and balls her fists “what” and you point in the direction of Lu and Gang “I think your “best” would rather be scarfing down varri-cakes than guarding their posts, Chief.” You slide a hand in your pocket and laugh. Lin’s cheeks heat up with embarrassment as she groans and starts stomping away. You grab her arm and pull her back to you catching her in surprise “For security purposes you sure wear that shade of red very well. Is that for anyone in particular?” you talk in a hushed low growl looking down at her as she looks at you. Her eyes glance down to your lips as you slightly bite your lip and she huffs trying to hid her blush, “Of course not” she snaps as she pushes off of you and stomps away. You watch her walk up to the detectives yell their ear off giving them orders to get to their posts. You snicker while you head inside looking for your seat, while Lin glances at your direction with her arms folding and watches you walking away looking down and sighs deeply.

You find your way to the box that Bolin mentioned in his letter and greet Asami, Bolin, and Ginger. “Hey everyone, Ginger nice to see you again” you warmly smile at you. Bolin excitedly walks up to you and hugs you picking you up “y/n! I’m so glad you made it” he smiles, and you pat his shoulder to get him to put you down “yeah, I wouldn’t miss this for the world, buddy. What’s a friend without supporting your projects.” You smile awkwardly then look at Asami “hey Sami, you look great as usual” you softly smile at her before giving her a small hug which she returns. “yeah, all things considered” you all look down as a sad feeling washes over you as you all think about Mako. Bolin clears his throat “come on, let’s not thinking about Mako for tonight. This is Nuktuk time!” he smiles brightly as he poses in a hero stance. You nod and give him a small nod “sure let’s take our seats. I think Varrick is about to start” everyone makes their way towards their seats as you take the open seat by Ginger and listen to Varrick’s speech.

“thank you all for coming to the finale of Nuktuk: Hero of the South. You know, when I first started this project, there were a lot of naysayers out there.

“you can’t make pictures move,” They said.

“you can’t take some knucklehead earthbender and make him a star,” they said.

“you can’t teach a polar bear dog to speak,” they said.

Well, they’re wrong. Thanks to the magic of the movers, our furry friends have found their voices and you’ll be shocked to hear what they have to say.

They speak of the injustice that’s happening in the Southern Water Tribe right now. My hope is that their words and this epic mover will inspire a real-life hero to rise up and help.” Varrick takes a moment to let the words sink into the audience “thank you again. Enjoy the show.”

 _Varrick surely is a master manipulator._ Your eyes roll after he’s done and you look over at Bolin who seems to look sad, he’s usually always chipper. Maybe he’s sad Mako isn’t here to experience this with him? You frown a bit but look back at the screen and try to enjoy the mover. You watch Nuktuk grieving a dying Juji and suddenly you see Bolin get up from his seat and walk out the box you look at Asami who exchanges your glance before whispering “I’ll go talk to him” you nod as you watch Asami get up and walk out the box after him.

“…I will be the ruler of Ice Earth” a dramatized evil Unalaq cackles in the mover and you laugh quietly. _They got the evil power hungry chief right._ You sense a large bang coming next door then the next second a guy in waterbender clothes is flying out landing in the water below. Your grip the arms of the chair and look over the railing before looking over at the box and notice the commotion. You jump out of your seat, jump up on the bar above and swing over to the other side of the wall into the next box kicking a guy down landing on his back. Then hop off of him accessing the scene and find Bolin “Bolin? What’s going on” he shouts, “they’re kidnapping the president!” as he gets down knocking out two guys by bending columns out the ground before warning the President and his wife to stand back. You help the president and his wife out from the box before three more men come running in your direction. You stand in front of them and tell them to stand aside as you get in your fighting stance dodging their attacks. You send a series of boulders their way before kicking up a slab of earth and send spike it towards their stomachs knocking them out. You grab the President and his wife “hurry, this way. The police should be on their way to get you to safety.” You escort them down the hall then you run into three officers who are about to knock you down before Raiko stops them “she saved us from those men” they nod then recognize you. you guess without your uniform you don’t look familiar to them. One of the officers look at you “we’ll take it from here” and you nod bowing out before running back and check on Bolin.

You run back into the president’s box when you see Bolin about to send a disc at one of the waterbender’s head question who sent him. The guy cowers in fear and points at Varrick’s box and you glare, “Varrick…. gotcha” you mutter as you smirk finally getting your confirmation. _I have to get him before he escapes_. You run out the box and start sprinting down the hall to Varrick and run into Lin and her force stopping. Lin watching her men arrest Varrick and Zhu Li turns her head to look at you then looks down feeling slightly guilty. You give her a soft nod and turn around walking away from the situation when you find it’s being handled.

*

“huh I guess he really is Nuktuk” you smile crossing your arms as you stand next to Asami. Both of you watching the cameras of the paparazzi in a frenzy taking photographs of Bolin to which he poses smiling big and bright. “yeah, he’s a real hero” Asami smiles as she watches Bolin then both your eyes widen when Ginger pulls Bolin into a kiss, “I can’t believe my boyfriend is a real-life hero.” She exclaims and you perk your eyebrows up. “When did Bolin get a girlfriend I thought Ginger was for publicity.” You lean over at Asami and whisper to which she shrugs just as shocked and confused as you. Asami walks up to Bolin “Bolin, you saved the president, and you proved Mako was right all along! We have to go tell him what happened” she tells him while he is in the middle of making out with Ginger. “yeah!” Bolin mumbles against Ginger’s lips then goes back to kissing her before Asami clears her throat and steps back “oh you meant right now.” You laugh and step forward “yeah, come on lover boy”

You pat him on the back when you hear a noise coming from the sky and look up to see “Oogi?” you mumble as you watch Oogi land at the entrance and you three run over enough to hear Korra say “…Unalaq wants to destroy the world” you subconsciously stand beside Lin as Bolin starts questioning Korra “Unalaq is gonna destroy the world? He really does have a doomsday device?”

“he’s trying to release a powerful dark spirit during Harmonic Convergence, which is only a few days away. If he succeeds, the world as we know it is over. Sir, we desperately need your help.”

Your eyes wide at Korra’s report and turn to the President, surely now he will change his views and want to fight. This is no longer a civil war, it’s now a world issue. He waits a moment before responding “I’m sorry, Korra, but my answer is still no.” everyone eyes widen at his respond and Tenzin speaks up heated evidently not happy of his comment which surprises you because Tenzin is never this angry unless it was Korra doing something juvenile “There are lives on the line! And my daughter is one of them. Raiko, you must reconsider” he barks out. _Wait what, his daughter? Jinora or Ikki? What happened to them?_ “Sir, I strongly suggest you reconsider, this is no longer a civil matter between two tribes. It is now a world issue..” you but in trying to reason with the president. “Enough!” Raiko shouts then sighs “I’m aware that lives are on the line, and that’s precisely why my troops are staying here. If the world is going to be thrown into chaos, like you claim, I need to protect my citizens. I’m sorry.” He laments as Bolin steps forward with a newfound confidence putting a hand on Raiko’s shoulder “Sir…Nuktuk needs your help. I know you love helping people.” _Oh he’s acting as Nuktuk._ Raiko eyes him down “Son, I appreciate you saving my life,” He looks over at you “you too, Lieutenant” then looks back at Bolin “I’m a big fan of your work, but my decision is final.” He turns around and leaves the group, everyone wondering what to do know. Bolin looks down “I never should’ve saved that guy” you join him “you and me both” you sigh. Asami turns to Korra “if you guys need help, I’m here for you” Bolin joins in “yeah, me too” you smile and step forward pointing your thumb at your chest “count me in too” Korra smiles appreciatively at the three of you “Thank you. it’s so good to see you guys again” then looks around “wait, where’s Mako” Bolin, Asami and you share glances before you speak up “he’s being held in prison. It’s a long story. We should go wait for him at the station when he gets out.” Everyone nods and Tenzin offers to give everyone a ride to the station.

*

You’re sitting at one of the benches further from the crowd as you wait for Mako to get released. You wanted to spend some time by yourself having your head down as you go over what transpired tonight. Your eyes open when you hear those metallic steps you know so well approach you and stands in front of you, you look up and crack a smile

“Chief, Looks like a nice evening to release a prisoner”. Lin sighs and uncrosses her arms

“you were right. I should have should’ve trusted Mako and…. I should have trusted--believed you.” you lean back in on the bench and sigh looking at Lin not saying anything for a couple of seconds before a smirk appears on your lips

“I’m willing to look past this and blame Raiko for stressing you out” you say smugly then you soften

“I wouldn’t be putting my job on the line if I didn’t think there was some truth in what Mako was saying” you quiet your voice as you put your hand on your thighs to push yourself up to stand up and face her.

“I know that now, but you shouldn’t have lied to me, y/n” she lowers her voice as she looks at you.

“you’re right, I shouldn’t have lied, but it had to be done or else we wouldn’t have gotten close to figuring out Varrick. You would’ve put a stop to it and would further delay or worse let Varrick get away” you mutter and before she can respond you quickly add

“you can’t tell me I’m not right on that” you smile as you fold your arms.

She sighs deeply “you’re incorrigible” she mutters. “I’m going to send Bolin to release Mako” she gives you the news as she turns around

“what about my job?” you ask as she turn her head over back to you

“I would figure you would have the intuition to know that you’re reinstated” she gives you a smile before dropping it as she turns back around but you quickly grab her arm stopping her before letting go realizing where you are and lower your voice even quieter

“what about us?” Lin stiffens up then whispers back “we’ll talk about that later…” before she finally walks away and gives Bolin the order and you watch him run inside. It takes a couple minutes, but you start to hear footsteps coming from the halls and you stand up walking over and stand besides Lin and the other officers and start to clap when you see Mako. Everyone follows your suit and Lin speaks up

“Nice job, Mako. You’re going to make a great detective.” She smiles at Mako. _I guess she does smile in public_. Lu and Gang’s jaws drop and look at each other confused

“but, chief, there aren’t any detective openings right now.” Chief looks over and responds nonchalantly

“Actually, we have two openings.” You cross your arms and looking down at the floor to hide your grin. _Fucking finally they’re gone._ Mako glances over at Asami and smiles while Korra pushes past the crowd and hugs him before giving him a kiss. She’s talking to him like their still together. You and Bolin watch the two with your eyes widen and really confused you eye Asami before glancing back at the couple(?) _._ Mako surprised to see Korra here and Bolin tries to smooth the situation over.

“oh yeah…. Korra’s back”. Mako and Korra talk to which he asks her if they remember the big fight they had. Korra looks down and shakes her head

“no, not really. I got attacked by a dark spirit and I lost my memory for a little while. Maybe it hasn’t all come back yet. Was it a bad fight?” _Yes. You guys broke up._ You answered in your head but hoped Mako has matured and be man enough to tell Korra those words.

 _“uh……..”_ Mako drags out as everyone looks at this show. You and Bumi with your arms crossed, Lin has her hands on her hips and everyone else just waiting for his response.

 _“….mm… no. No, it—it wasn’t that bad.”_ he finally retorts. Asami looks mad and crosses her arms and you quietly smack her head down on your palm. _Well this is awkward._ Tenzin steps up to clear the tension and change the subject. _Yes, let’s cut and dodge this whole scene, good job Tenzin put those airbending moves in action._

“Korra, we don’t have much time. We need to figure out how to deal with Unalaq.” Bolin looks at Tenzin

“I think I know just the man to talk to.”

*

“why wouldn’t I be surprised” you muttered as you see Varrick’s prison chamber.

“Varrick industries built this prison, and I had this cell made special. I had a feeling I’d end up here one day” he smirks, and you run your hands down into your pockets as you watch him order his assistant around.

“Don’t tell me you guys are still mad about everything that happened.” You groan out

“Yup, why wouldn’t we be” you glare at him. “I did some good things too” he sounds hurt “like what?” you talk back to him to which he started naming a good thing he’s done for every person.

“Korra, who warned you about Unalaq? I did” 

“Bolin, who got you into the movers? I did”

“Asami, who saved your company? I did”

“You…actually I’m coming at a blank….” He steps up the cell and eyes you Zhu Li speaks up

“That’s y/n, sir. She’s Asami’s close friend and also works under Chief Beifong as a Lieutenant” You look over at Zhu Li and give her a short nod before looking back at Varrick as he smirks at you

“right… y/n, hmm sorry didn’t do anything for you… I guess, I didn’t” he steps away as you roll your eyes as he points at Mako

“Mako, who got you thrown in jail? I did!.... oh yeah, I guess that was a bad thing. 3 out of 5 ain’t bad.” He looks down counting on his fingers.

“it’s not good either…. You did all that stuff to fool and manipulate them into your grand scheme.” You snap at him as Asami steps up “you stole everything from me, and you tried to kidnap the president. Those are pretty bad too.”

“I wasn’t going to hurt him. I just needed to start a war. Well, a bigger war.” As he extends his arms apart to show how big he wanted this war to be.

Bolin jumps “well we’re gonna end it.”

You look from Bolin then turn to Varrick “Where’s all the stuff you stole from Asami?”

Varrick puts his arms on his hips “the Future Industries stuff? It’s on my battleship.”

Korra raises an eyebrow “you have a battleship?”

“Of course I do! I bought the first on they made, named her the Zhu Li”

You frown “that’s nice…. I guess”

Bolin proceeds to ask, “you named your battleship after your assistant?”

“yep. They’re both cold, heartless war machines.”

“um, never mind about it being nice” you mutter out loud

“Look, I am truly sorry for the mess I caused. Let me make it up to you. Take Zhu Li…. My battleship, it’s yours, and everything on it.”

Korra perks up “it’s not the fleet we were looking for, but it’s the next best thing.”

Bolin jumps up excited and happy “Alright! Team Avatar is back in business!” he pulls Korra, Asami and Mako into a group hug as they all laugh. He tries to grab you, but you step aside and smile “come y/n you’re part of the team too!” he looks at you and you shake your head “I wasn’t at that initial meeting” you laugh and Bolin puts a finger on his chin as he thinks “well you’re part of T.A.B” he smiles and your eyebrow raises confused “um…T.A.B.? I’m a tab?” you cross your arms slightly feeling offended as he quickly waves his hands “not tab, T.A.B! Team Avatar B! The team consists of Tenzin, Kya, Bumi, General Iroh, Chief Beifong, and you”. You and Lin exchange a glance then look back at Bolin “um, right…T.A.B” you smile softly. “well let’s get packed up, take a quick nap and embark first thing in the morning” you smile then walk over to Asami making sure she’s okay with everything with Mako and then plan for her to swing by your place and give you a ride. We got a crazy evil north chief to stop.


	13. Battleship Zhu Li

You’re at home as you start packing a bag when Lin steps in the room “you seem excited to get out of here?” she leans against the doorframe with her arms folded “are you not coming?” you look over at her and stop for a second before going to your closet to grab a thick enough coat. She shakes her head “I want to but Raiko needs the city prepped in case the war comes to the city. I have to stay and go over any possible evacuation routes and civilian safety. Keep the city safe”. You drop your coat on the bed “I can stay and help you with that. Korra has more than enough help.” you step around the bed and walk towards her. She looks away contemplating your offer before looking back at you “no, you should go. They might need a metal bender.” You look at her and nod understandingly “if you’re okay with it” Lin hesitantly reaches over and plants her palm on your chest not feeling the armor “you’re not going without your armor are you?”

You just blink “uh…” She huffs “don’t be ridiculous. Metal bender without metal armor” she pushes you back “I got other stuff!” you exclaim as you run out the bedroom heading to the garage as you unlock the cabinet and bend on your brace and sleeves and return. Lin is standing where you left her as her eyebrow raises now it’s your turn to stand under the doorframe and lift your sleeve and show her your metal forearm sleeve, it’s similar to Korra’s wrappings except yours is metallic, it reminds you of the one Suyin wears, giving you protection and the ability to bend out a dagger if needed when in close combat. “I also fashioned my own set of cables” you point towards your back and turn around, showing off the back brace. It’s just like how Lin wear’s hers, the cable spooled on her back and the stringed along the forearm. In basic terms, you basically made an exoskeleton version of the police’s armor. “It’s not much but it’ll make do its purpose.” Lin looks over at your back brace and sleeves “where did you get these?” you smirk proudly “Get it?! I built it! It’s a y/n exclusive. Ever since Amon I didn’t want to have to fight without the cables, so I built my own without having to use the police’s property.” Lin smirks “Asami?” and you chuckle “she had the materials, but I did the design and manufactured them. What does Chief Beifong think?” you raise your eyebrow as you playfully start flexing your arms and back. She checks you out and smiles “impressive but I still say you would be better with armor” you grin and zip up your bag “if I didn’t know any better I would say Lin Beifong is a worry wart and overprotective” Lin rolls her eyes and groans “negative” you smile as you put your bag aside noticing the time, 1:00 AM. “you want to stay the night? It’s pretty late” you bend the back brace and sleeves off setting them beside the bag. Lin watches you an contemplates whether or not to then sighs “fine, but I’m staying on the couch” she rolls her eyes and walks to the couch. You’re not about to fight her on this if you do decide to offer your bed you think she would just end up getting up and going back to her place. So it’s better not to press her, this is at least some progress in the right direction. You let Lin shower first though, you set your alarm and tell Lin goodnight laying in your bed.

After a couple minutes you start dozing off laying on your side. About an hour you’re of light sleep, you hear footsteps coming towards you then a weight settling down beside you. You smile a bit not opening your eyes or turning over, but you mumble “what happened, did you hear noises?” you mumble as you smirk.

“your couch is uncomfortable” Lin grumbles as she shifts and lays on her back. You lightly chuckle “goodnight” as you yawn then go back to sleep.

Lin looked at the ceiling of the living room as she laid on the couch. She couldn’t sleep not because the bed wasn’t comfortable, but she couldn’t stop debating whether or not to just muster up the courage and stop her stubbornness to just go lay on the bed. _y/n isn’t coming back until Raava knows when, not until Unalaq is defeated. It could be days or weeks; this is practically the last time you’ll see her until she comes back. Knowing yourself, you’re going to be replaying this scene over in your head wondering why you didn’t get in bed with y/n_. Lin curse under her breath as she get up and quietly walks over to the bed then lays down on the bed. _Hopefully y/n is asleep. Please be asleep_. y/n asked her what happened, and Lin tries to come up with an excuse “your couch is uncomfortable” Lin grumbles as she fluffs the pillow and lays on her back. y/n tells you goodnight and goes back to sleep. Lin looks over to you and starts laying on her side then scoots over and lays behind, spooning you and puts an arm over your waist, laying her head above yours.

Your body seems to relax under her touch as you sleep, sinking further into the bed and you let out a sigh. Falling into a deeper sleep which Lin takes notice as she too finally closes her eyes and falls asleep. You wake up a couple of hours in the middle of the night feeling a tug on your waist. Looking down your attention is on Lin’s arm wrapped around you, a soft smile appears on your lips. Putting your hand over hers, sliding your fingers between hers you pull her hand up your lips and softly kiss each finger. Her fingertips are callused from her work, yet her hand is soft then add another soft kiss on her palm before resting her hand back down near your abdomen. You’re going to miss these kinds of nights where you get to sleep next to Lin. Nights where even though your days are filled with stress, fights, and chaos in the city you were happy with the woman beside you. Sleep takes over once again.

The alarm blares loudly as you press the snooze button and stir in bed groaning no wanting to wake up at 5 in the morning. “wake up or you’re going to be late” Lin grumbles not wanting to close her eyes and you scoot aside so you can turn on your back causing Lin’s arm to wrap around you. “why am I waking this early again” you mumble not opening your eyes either. “Stop…. Unalaq” Lin slowly mumbles as she falls back asleep. You open your eyes and turn your head to look at Lin and smile before you slowly get up and slide out the bed and start to get dressed as quiet as possible to let Lin sleep. While you dress you keep glancing over at Lin and watch how peaceful she looks, your heart filling up and your stomach fluttering. You pack your brace and sleeves in the bag and zip it up, then sit beside Lin putting your hand over her body and gently shake her awake “I’m heading out. You’re welcome to stay whenever. I’ll trust you’ll lock up after you leave” you gently speak to you then you hesitantly lean down and softly kiss her scarred cheek, then whisper softly “don’t get too bruised up and I’ll try to do the same”. You sit up and reach over at your nightstand and write down something before setting the notepad down. Lin woke up when she felt your lips on her cheek and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up when she feels your breath on her cheek when you whisper. Then hears the sound of a pen scribbling down on paper but doesn’t move while you get up gathering your stuff and start walking out. Lin turns over “y/n, don’t get yourself killed.” She softly speaks and you turn your head over your shoulder to look back at her. _You’re really going to leave with just a kiss on the cheek?!_ You drop your bag and walk back to Lin and lean down kissing her deeply “Only if you don’t. I would never live with myself if I didn’t kiss you if something were to happen.” You kiss her again before forcing yourself to step back, grab your bag, kissing your fingers and send her a kiss before turning away and head out. Lin waits until she hears the front door close to turn over and look at what you were scribbling about. She reaches over to the nightstand grabbing the notepad and reads what’s on the paper.

"no matter what happens between us. I'm never quitting on you. I'll always love and protect you, Lin Beifong. yours, y/n." Lin looks down and notices a postscript "P.S. Yes, I know...it's mushy" Lin chuckles at the postscript figured you would have known she would have that exact thought. A smile creeps up on Lin’s face as she turns back onto her side looking at your writing. She settles the paper down on the bed in front of her as she grabs your pillow and pulls it close to her chest hugging it. Lin exhales deeply closing her eyes and allows a tear to creep down her cheek. She opens her eyes once again and looks at the note her eyes resting on the word ‘yours’ as lays another hour in your bed.

*

“I know I came up with the time, but no one had to listen to me” huff out as you board the ship helping Asami with her bags setting them in the bunks provided in the ship before walking over to the Captain’s deck to review the route to take and start the ship. Soon you take off and are now on route to head on to the south pole. You look back and watch the Republic City skyline slowly disappear a slight pang in your heart as you’re leaving Lin behind, but you both have jobs to do to help the world. You and Asami both walk back to one of the rooms and you drop on your bed while Asami sits on her. You turn your head over to her and pout, “yuan for your thoughts?” as you turn on your side propping your head up with your arm. Asami shakes her head and stands back up walking over to her bag and you sit up “I’m sorry about the whole Mako thing…”. Asami stops and turns around “he’s a jerk” you can clearly tell that she is angered by his infidelity. “yeah, but it’s mature of you to put your relationship aside to help Korra despite Mako being a little wuss,” You stand up and walk over to Asami putting a hand on her shoulder “not many people would do that. You deserve better”. Asami gives you a soft smile thanking you for your words “how are you and Beifong? Mako mentioned she suspended you from the force…did that effect outside of work?” she looks at you and you remove your hand as you walk back to your bed and sit down. Asami following you but sits on her bed instead as you sigh “uh—yeah, after the bust in his apartment Beifong decided to search my place too thinking I was involved since Mako was incriminated. We had this big blow up of a discussion in my bedroom while she searched. She was calling me by just my name…” you looked down at the floor searching for the words “but Beifong usually calls you Lieutenant or adds your name after your title, “she remarked. A laugh escapes your lips “yeah, precisely. When she said my name… I knew this wasn’t a conversation between two colleagues anymore but between two friends? Girlfriends? I don’t know…. people. She was furious, calling me foolish for trusting Mako and believing him. It being inappropriate to go behind her back and undermining her authority. I lied and completely broke her trust… she…she broke things off with me.” you look up at Asami whose face softens when you catch her up on what she missed of her friend, “but Mako was right. You were right. It’s fixed between the two of you, right?” she looks at you hoping there is some good news in the love department between the two of you. you sigh and shrug “I don’t know, I got my job back, no longer suspended. She slept over so that’s a good sign, I think. She probably feels guilty but is too headstrong to admit it.” You laugh “I did say goodbye with a kiss… so there’s that” you run your hand to the back of your neck and rub it softly. “relationships are hard, especially now. Now doesn’t seem to be the right time for one. You know with trying to help the Avatar save the world from impending doom” you quip and laugh trying to lighten the mood. Asami laughs softly then stands up “I’m going to the captain’s desk and try looking for any transmissions from the radio…” you stop her “you’ll be fine, Sami?” you ask, and she gives you a soft nod before walking out the room.

*

A deep exhale escapes your lips as your ears are filled with the clash of waves hitting the side of the ship, the aroma of saltwater reaches up to your nose while you’re bending a piece of meteorite in the palm of your hand molding it into different figures. Leaning against the railing, our ear perks up when you hear footsteps approaching you causing your head to tilt in that direction of the noise and see Bolin, you lean off the railing, “hey Bolin, how’s it going?” you mold the meteorite into a shape that resembles a silhouette of Pabu. “Hey, y/n! —woah that’s so cool, looks like Pabu?!” his eyes widen as you hand him the piece so he can review it. “yeah” you chuckle a bit as you notice him furrow his eyebrows while he looks at the little metallic piece “everything okay, Bolin?” Bolin looks up and smiles nodding gently “uh…yeah, all good” he hands you back the meteorite as he watches you bend it back to its original state with ease before putting it back in your pocket. You look back at Bolin who looks like he’s conflicting on whether to ask you something and you frown a bit, “you sure you’re good you look like a cat-owl has your tongue” which causes to knock out of his thoughts before he sighs “it’s just I think metalbending is sooooo cool, ever since I’ve read about how Toph Beifong created it I tried to learn but…. I never succeeded.” He looks down leaning against the railing with his head down and you smile softly “well I could teach you if you want” you smile more bumping his shoulder with your own just to see him smile brightly, his eyes filling with excitement and hope “really?!” he jumps up. You shrug “well I’m not the best teacher but there’s no harm in trying” you look down sliding your hand in your pocket and take the meteorite back out then grab Bolin’s hand and open it placing the space rock on his palm.

“oh, so we’re doing this right now…okay” Bolin comments as he starts gets nervous. You shake your head trying to calm him down as you walk him away from the railing just in case he throws the rock overboard. “no need to be nervous, you’ll be fine. Just try to breathe and relax” you squeeze his should reassuringly as he nods and closes his eyes as he breathes and relaxes. As you watch you start to speak to him calmly “Open your mind, you will see that all the elements are one. Four parts of the same whole. Metal is only a form of unprocessed earth that it has been purified and refined. To metalbend, you’re concentrating on finding the trace amounts of “unpurified” raw earth that is still present in the metal, once you target those pieces, you use it to bend the metal itself” you pace around him with your arms around your back as you look at him taking your words in then stand in front of him. “Now, try to bed the metal, focus on the pieces of earth still trapped inside.” You look at his face seeing him straining as he concentrates on the meteorite after a few minutes he gasp out a breath. “Don’t strain yourself, Bolin. Take a few minutes and try again” Bolin nods and gives you a small smile and shakes off his nervous feelings before he tries again and after another 10 minutes he sighs and looks down “it’s no use. I can’t do it…. Maybe I’m not meant to metalbend” his voice pained with defeat as he gives you back the meteorite. You frown and comfort him giving him a hug “hey, don’t give up. Like I said I’m not a very good teacher. Maybe when we get back to Republic City, Chief Beifong can teach you or even Su…”

“Su?” Bolin steps back confused “who’s Su?”

“Beifong’s…. sister”

“Su has a sister?!”

“yeah…. No one better to teach you than one of the daughters of the original metalbender.” You smile folding your arms

“what about Toph Beifong?”

“hmm? Oh I don’t know… I’ve seen Toph once but never really met her. Who knows where she’s at, probably out enjoying retirement or something”

“oh, Cool”

“um, but just in case it should be better not mention this to anyone. I don’t think Chief would want to find out that you know about her personal life. I wouldn’t want you or me to get the wrath of Chief Beifong.”

“yeah…. Chief Beifong is a badass but she terrifies me”

“Exactly, she would probably get us throw in jail or worse, murder us and have it look accidental” you pat him on the shoulder and smile but Bolin’s face seems to lose color. “it’s a joke, Bolin. Relax. Or maybe it isn’t…” you put your finger on your chin thinking about it.

“We’ll just act surprised if its brought up” you shrug “I’m going to find something to eat”

Bolin wakes up from his little fear thoughts “Ok, I’m going to explore the ship and see what I find. You never know what’ll you find in a Varrick ship”. You turn around and start walking away when Bolin calls out to you “hey y/n” you turn your head back over your shoulder “yeah?” he rubs the back of his neck “thanks for trying to teach me. It means a lot” he sheepishly smiles before walking away. You frown a bit sad at yourself that you weren’t able to help Bolin, but you hope it doesn’t break his spirit to keep trying.

*

Everyone went to bed, you offered to drive the ship and man the controls. Asami offered to stay up with you but she’s been handing all the driving since the morning and you told her it would be best for her to rest. It’s so late at night that you look out at the now pitch black waters. It’s so dark out in front of you feel a weird ominous feeling yet strange sense of calm. You look around at the Captain’s deck and look at the radio, your start to wonder if you would be able to pick up a signal back to Republic City. You take a seat at the table bringing the receiver to your ear as you start turning the knob to and start trying any frequency. “Battleship Zhu Li to com center, do you read me” you try your best with your lingo and try to hear for any feedback from the other end as you try to fumble with the settles. Soon after ten minutes you start to hear a voice “Com center to Battleship Zhu Li. We read you, over” you hear, and you sigh with relief finally able to pick something up. “Glad to hear you command center, can you patch a channel between the Zhu Li to Republic City’s Chief of Police, over” you request the operator “Roger that, Is everything okay out there in the open waters?, over”

“everything is smooth sailing so far, over” 

“copy that, patching you through”

“appreciate it”

There is some static and soon it seems to settle, and you bring yourself down and talk softly “Chief Beifong?” you call out but don’t hear anything. You start to think maybe the signal died and was about to put the receiver back before you hear static and a voice “Lieutenant y/n, is that you?!” she sounds surprised to hear you and you chuckle softly “surprised to hear from me, chief?”

“how did you even get patched to me”

“I have my ways”

“is there anyone with you?” Lin asks reluctantly and you wonder why she’s asking but after a couple of seconds you press on the button to respond 

“No, everyone is resting. I’m manning the ship. What about you?”

“Sent everyone home to do the same. Stayed to work on paperwork.”

Your fingers jitter on the receiver before you talk again “You know I never fought plenty of people, never dark spirit-- or any spirit for that matter-- so I don’t know what to expect, but on the off chance anything happens…”

“the only thing that is going to happen is that monster being taken down”

“ha, that’s very optimistic, coming from you, Lin”

You hear a small laugh come from her “All I know is if you were to die. I’ll bring you back from wherever you are, just to kill you myself.”

Now it’s you that’s laughing “I wouldn’t have it any other way”

There is another comfortable silence between the two of you which causes to ask if you’re still there or did the signal die.

“y/n?”

“I’m still here honey” you say without thinking but you realize what you said. Lin hasn’t responded back “sorry, it slipped out”

“it’s okay… at least…you’re still here”

“I know we didn’t get to talk about us before I left but…”

“just come back to me alive, y’n”

“I will. I’ll come back to you however many times you’ll allow me” your heart races as Lin’s words _come back to me_ causes your stomach to flutter with butterflies.

“Alive” she retorts sternly

“Of course alive, Lin”

You wait a couple of seconds “I…I wish you were here beside me” you confess to Lin. You wished you were beside her curled up in bed holding her or being in her arms.

“I wish you were here with me, but what are we to do. You left to help the Avatar.” She quipped at you causing you roll to your eyes and smile “You were invited to come along, but you wouldn’t leave your precious city”

“Someone had to make sure it doesn’t get destroyed so we’ll still have a place to live”

“There are other places babe”

“Not like Republic City”

“That’s true” you agree, there is not a place anywhere else in the world like Republic City.

You and Lin continue on your conversation throughout the late hours of the night trying to help each other forget of the stress of the dangers in the night. It wasn’t until you notice a silver of sunlight starting to creep up on the horizon that you notice morning is starting. A few minutes later you hear a little snore coming from Lin’s transmission and you smile realizing she fell asleep. “I love you” you whisper into the receiver before ending the transmission on the private channel. A rub your eyes then cheeks as you smile feeling better and filled with motivation to take Unalaq down and end the war. A couple of hours later Asami comes to relieves you and you thank her going back to your bunk to sleep for a couple of hours.

*

“okay, I think I’m done sparing…. try hitting that hay filled dummy over there instead” you grumble as you push yourself off ground Korra offering a hand which you take and rub your shoulder. “I didn’t rough you up too much did I?” Korra smirked and you laugh “not at all, don’t want to hurt you before we even make it to the South Pole” you rebutted and smirk folding your arms. “oh ha ha very funny” Korra furrows as Tenzin advises Korra to keep training and she nods working on her airbending skills while you stand beside Tenzin to watch Korra. You glance at Tenzin and frown a bit “I’m sorry to hear about your daughter, Tenzin. I’m optimistic that she’ll pull through and get her back safely,” you speak softly as you continue watching Korra. Tenzin looks down sadden “Thank you, y/n. I’m worried for Jinora I hope she can stay strong for a little while more. This is all my fault…”

“It’s not your fault, Tenzin. It’s heartbreaking as a parent to see your child hurt and feeling hopeless, but you must stay strong for her. I know we all came along to help Korra but we’re for just the same reasons for you. Who is with Jinora now?” 

Tears form at the corner of Tenzin’s eyes, but he quickly composes himself “Thank you, y/n. That means a lot, and Kya is with her now circulating the energy flow in Jinora’s body.” You nod understanding as both of you go back to watching Korra. “I’m gonna join Bumi and Oogi up above” you bend a cable out and scale up the ship doing a flip and land beside Bumi petting Oogi before taking a seat beside Bumi listening to Bumi play his flute. Bumi turns to you “so you a friend of the Korra?” Bumi takes a small break from playing and you shrug “yeah, I think we’ve established a friendship it started off rocky since she destroyed several shops on her first day in the city. Quite the entrance”

“nothing like a big entrance for an Avatar” Bumi and you exchange a laugh

“Actually, I’m close friends with Asami and I work as a Lieutenant with Chief Beifong in Republic City” you lean back against Oogi.

“well well quite a title for a young fighter”

“Hey! I’m 27, a hard worker and _very_ ambitious.” You smirk looking down to keep watching Korra practice though an amused face creeps up on you when you see Bolin in a weird purple coat thing.

“oh so you’re another ruler stickler like Tenzin and a hardass like Linny” he gruff as he fiddles with his flute and you shake your head and laugh out loud “Linny? I thought she didn’t like being called that” your eyes widen when you said that and dart to Bumi your cheeks blushing coming up with an excuse “I—uh-- accidentally called her that and she practically chewed my ass on the training ground”

Bumi eyes you but shrugs it off and laughs hearing that you almost got bodied by Lin “She’s not here to stop me” you sigh of relief before laughing again “no, not at all, I just got reinstated last night. When I got suspended for going behind Beifong’s back when Mako and I were doing the investigation that led to Varrick.

“oh, it takes some real guts to go behind Linny. I don’t think even Tenzin would do something like that. He’s too much of a chicken to try!” He smiles mischievously as he yelled that last part enough for Tenzin to hear.

“I heard that, Bumi!” Tenzin yelled back. You and Bumi look at each other and laugh

“oh we made the airhead angry” Bumi teased as you quietly chuckle “We should stop the teasing for now, unless you want to be knocked overboard by one of his air punches.”

Bumi huffs and leans over to you and smirks “ha, Tenzin doesn’t scare me” before he leans back to his side and goes back to playing his flute.

Tenzin seems rather annoyed by the teasing you and Bumi caused, which wasn’t helping his feelings about Jinora. He used his frustrations and directed it to give Korra direction in her training. “Unalaq will be waiting for you. you’ll need all of your avatar power to stop him.”

“I’m going to close the spirit portals, lock Vaatu in for another 10,000 years, and make Unalaq wish he’d was never born!” Korra sends a large fire punch to the hay dummy that knocks it’s head off in the direction towards Mako

“wow Hayward didn’t stand a chance” you muttered which Bumi heard and made him cackle “Hayward?! Nice” you smile and laugh along with him. Bumi laughs seems infectious it could be his kid like spirit always trying to keep the spirits up in the group. It helps especially when we’re about to face a crazy power hungry water tribe chief preventing an impending doom. 

You hear a door open and you scoot over to the edge to see who it is and see it’s Kya. You keep having a nagging feeling that you know Kya from somewhere, but you brush it off. “As soon as we reach the southern water tribe….”

“we should probably make our way down, need a hand?” you look at Bumi “nah I got it. I don’t need special bending to get down”

you smirk “I wasn’t going to bend”

“you never mentioned your name”

“it’s y/n” you smile

“well y/n, here’s to some crazy adventures”

you give him a salute before you scoot forward and start sliding down the wall landing beside Kya. Kya startles a bit not hearing you come down, you mouth out a sorry, she smiles softly before giving her attention back to Tenzin ”..we’ll blast through the blockade at the main port. Then we can rendezvous with Tonraq and his troops, crash through the defenses and around the portal, and enter the spirit world.”

“woah, since when does my little brother want to crash or blast through anything?” Kya brings her hands up in the air as she looks at her Tenzin.

“yeah… don’t airbenders usually take more of a defensive approach?” you look at Tenzin confused while you cross your arms.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to save my daughter.” Tenzin raises his voice.

“We all want to save Jinora, but I think your plan might be a tad overaggressive, seeing as there are only eight of us and one ship.” Bumi comments on Tenzin’s plan which you agree with Bumi it’s too much of an aggressive approach which can be reckless. Tenzin turns over to Bumi crossing his arms “Really? And what do you suggest?”

“An attack like this calls for strategy. I remember when I was surrounded by pirates in the hurricane straits. We managed to capture them all with just a feather, two eggs, and a barrel of molasses.” Bumi goes off telling a crazy war story to which Tenzin interrupts him “I don’t want to hear any of your crazy stories now! This is serious.” Bumi stops and pouts crossing his arms looking away. Kya looks at you confused of who you are, and you glance at her “sorry, I’m y/n. we never gotten the chance to formally meet.” You extend a hand and shake Kya’s hand “yeah, I saw you at the Glacier Spirits festival then that whole spirit attack. I’m Kya, Tenzin’s cool older sister, but I’m sure you knew that” you smile and nod your head as you look at her eyes. _That necklace look oddly familiar. I think I've seen those eyes before too_ “yeah, I’ve heard a few things” which causes Kya to raise an eyebrow “oh? If you heard it from Tenzin, it’s a lie unless it was something nice then it was true” she smiles as she nudges her little brother, but you shake your head laughing softly “All good things, don’t worry” your attention is diverted when you hear footsteps coming behind you and turn around to see Asami “Hey Sami, were you able to contact the South Pole?”

“yeah”

“Are we almost there?” Bolin cuts in and he and Mako joins the group

“Almost. But I just picked up a distress signal from the southern troops. There’s a problem.”


	14. Bombs Ahoy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You've made it to the South Pole. As the time is nearing to take down Unalaq in his plans. Will you be able to stop him in time?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some keys:
> 
> y/s/n = Your Sister's Name  
> y/s/s/n or y/b/s/n = Your Second Sister's Name/Your Baby Sister's Name  
> y/a/n = Your Aunt's Name

Asami tells everyone the news which causes Korra to get emotional and Tenzin tries to calm her down. “We’re almost there once we’re close we can take Oogi to make it to the healing hut fast.” Korra balls her fists and looks down.

Once we make it to the port everyone hurries on Oogi Tenzin passing Jinora to Bumi who gently sets her down beside Kya. Your eyes sadden as you look down at Jinora taking her hand “hang in there, kid” you whisper as you look at Kya whose face is filled with worry “she’s going to pull through. She’s strong” Kya takes her gaze away from Jinora and looks over at you and softly nods before a sense of guilt washes her “it’s my fault, I encouraged her to guide Korra to the spirit world. She’s stuck there because of me” she whispers her voice pang with emotion as she tears up. “There are always risk when doing anything. Jinora is very mature and strong for her age. You had no idea this would happen. You’ve done all you’ve can to keep Jinora’s body alive. We’ve made it to the South Pole. We have to keep our spirits up for Jinora. She would want us to keep fighting.” You put your hand on the cuff of her shoulder giving her a light squeeze “thanks, y/n. That’s kind of you.” you give her a small smile before dropping your hand down then looking out at the horizon seeing the healing hut coming into view. 

You offer to hold Jinora to let Kya get down with Tenzin while Korra runs to meet her mother. You pick up Jinora cradling her in your arms and once Tenzin is ready you pass her down to him. Once Tenzin has Jinora in his arms everyone makes their way down from Oogi and make way inside the healing hut. Korra and Kya open the doors for Tenzin, and it surprises the whole group to see the healing hut filled over its capacity with injured soldiers. Your eyes scan the whole room your stomach dropping to witness this scene but your eyes land on a woman with large curly hair taking care of a patient. “y/s/n” you whisper under your breath as you see your now adult younger sister as she is healing a man’s shoulder. Katara turns and sees the group walking towards the team “what happened?” Katara checks out Jinora in Tenzin’s arms “her soul is trapped in the spirit world.”

“oh, my goodness. How long has she been away?”

“Almost a week. I’ve tried to keep her energy flowing, but I can feel her slipping away. You’re the only one who can help her now, mom.” Kya cups Jinora’s cheek as she reports to her mother on Jinora’s health. _Oh man almost a week._ You don’t know much about spirituality but even for you that’s far too long to be away from your body. Katara and her family walk into the private healing room to help Jinora right away.

You’re standing at the entrance when you start to step forward walking past Team Avatar going towards your sister. “y/s/n” you speak as the woman looks up and her eyes widen as realization hits of who the person calling her name, “y/n!” she drops her wrapping on the tray and hurries to you and gives you a massive hug “Oh Raava, what are you doing here?! Can’t you see were in the middle of a civil war!” she mutters as she steps back looking at you, you let out a single laugh. “I see you’re still the worrying type like mom” you both exchange smiles as she’s letting go of you “it’s been three years since we last saw each other, y/n. Now what are you doing here?”

“I wasn’t going to let you have all the fun. I came with Avatar Korra to help the war front and stop Unalaq. Also, I wanted to make sure you were safe” your eyes soften at the end “I’m glad you are. If anything happened to you…” you trail off as you feel your throat tighten “hey, come here” your sister walks you to a corner of the hut away from the patients and pulls you into another hug “I’m not the same little kid that you dropped off at Aunt y/a/n’s hut anymore. I’ve become quite the healer since studying under Master Katara and Kya. I can handle myself.” 

You nod as you listen to your sister, she’s always been caring, kind, and sensitive. Been in tune with her emotions and always knew when you or y/s/s/n were feeling off or needed a hug. Empathic of your emotions. You pull back as you wipe the couple of tears that were able to escape as your sister looks at the closed doors of the private room “what happened to Master Tenzin’s daughter?” she softly asked, and you explained to your sister Jinora’s condition and you watch your sister’s face saddens. “poor child, but she’s very strong to have lasted this long. If anyone can help it’s Master Katara..”

“she’s the best healer in the world.” You both ended in unison a soft silence comes between the two of you before your sister speaks again.

“so you’re in close company with Avatar Korra. Did you meddle in that too?” she smirks, and you roll your eyes. Your sister always teasing you on how you like to meddle in things especially a hit on the fight that caused your burned scars. “actually no, I didn’t. We kept bumping into each other so why not become friends” you quip. Your sister shakes her head as a fellow healer walks over and whispers in her ear, “ok, I’ll head right over” she whispers back to her. “I have to go, be safe, don’t be reckless, and please don’t try to be a hero.” She stresses as she grips your arms to try to stick those words into your head. “ **oh** -kay, **_mom_** ” you tease her as you smile. “ ** _please_** , I’m way more fun than mom” she nudges you. “Hey…. mom and dad would be so proud of you, y/s/n. As a person and the healer you’ve become. Especially mom.” you smile as you look at your sister whose eyes tear up with the recognition. “They would be proud of you too, y/n. When push comes to shove you always stand up to do the right thing protecting those who are defenseless. _Even though it gets you in tough situations._ The way you think things through, I don’t know where you got it whether from mom or dad”

“probably a mix of both” you smile

“Mom was never a fan of violence nor was dad, but I know they would be proud as hell to know their daughter is helping the Avatar save the world. I and y/s/s/n are proud too” She smiles squeezing your shoulder as you smile back. The healer from earlier calls for your sister again and she acknowledges the healer as Tenzin, Kya and Bumi walk out of the private room and start heading out the healing hut. “ok, now I really have to go” you nod understanding and let her go. She stops and turns around to look at you “Whoever you have in your life right now. Keep them close. Your aura has changed drastically for the better since the last time I saw you” she smiles again as she waves goodbye to you and goes back to work. You think over your sister’s words and wondering who she’s talking about. You take one more look at your sister smiling with pride then walk out and meet up with Team Avatar and Team Avatar B, or T.A.B. as Bolin calls it. You’re walking down the stairs as you hear Korra reporting her findings “Unalaq’s got the southern portal surrounded. Harmonic Convergence is only a few hours away.”

Tenzin joins in adding to Korra’s urgency on the matter “then we have to break through the enemy lines ourselves and get to the portal now”

“there’s no use in talking anymore. We know what our mission is.”

Bolin sucks in air through his teeth feeling uncomfortable by a lack of plan

“yeah, a suicide mission”

You look at everyone and try to reason with how dumb it is that Tenzin and Korra are wanting to go aggressive in their plan of attack. “it won’t be a suicide mission if we think this through. We can’t just run in without any sort of plan”

Bumi starts to reminisce on one of his war stories “you know, I was in a similar situation once. My platoon has crawled through the desert with no water for a week, but when we finally located the only oasis for 100 miles, it was surrounded by angry sandbenders. I realized our only chance to get to the water was to drop in from above. So I fashioned together a catapult, and with the help of a few well-trained hog-moneys—” you notice Tenzin’s face starts to shake and his irritation starts to boil over as he explodes

“ **ENOUGH OF YOUR RIDICULOUS LIES**! Can’t you see that the fate of the world and Jinora’s life depends on what we do here today?” Bumi shows a hurt expression as his eyes dart to you when you put your hands up and start to speak to stop Tenzin from blowing up any further “Hold on, I get that was a long story, but Bumi made a valid point and I think it could work...”

“he did?!” Kya’s eyes widen as she looks at you confused that you made sense of one of his outrageous stories. 

“yes, drop from above…an air attack. No one would expect us to hit from the sky”

“Hold on. Maybe Bumi’s right. We don’t have a catapult and hog-monkeys, but we have a flying bison, and there’s a plane on Varrick’s ship. Maybe we can attack from above.”

Korra looks at you and Asami “What are you thinking?” you glance at Asami giving her a nod

“Mako, Bolin, y/n and I can use the plane to create a distraction and scatter some of the defenses. You, Tenzin, Bumi, and Kya can fly into the spirit portal on Oogi when you see an opening.”

“Let's get moving.” Everyone nods understanding the plan.

*

Mako and Bolin stand on either wing while Asami gets in the cockpit to drive the plane. You…you decide you’re going to ride the plane on top of the upper wing like you’re surfing it. _Yeah I’m totally not being reckless right now_. You bend your cables to wrap around the wings and then it wraps around your waist for added stability and further ground yourself to the plane. The plane takes off and soon you meet up with Oogi and the gang, 

Asami looks at the three of you and starts asking if everyone is ready.

“I'm an earthbender strapped to the wing of a plane hundreds of feet in the air, so, no?” Bolin hollers against the air currents hitting against us “Aw come on Bolin, this is fun! I feel like an airbenders” You smile as you maintain a grip on the cables. “Don't worry. There's no way they'll be expecting this.” Mako calls out as the clouds start to clear from your view and you see the spirit portal coming into view but there seems to be something flying around the beam of light. “what is that?” you yell out wondering if anyone is seeing the scene in front of you. “Yeah, but do you see that!” Bolin yells back pointing at the circular defense formation around the portal as he holds on tighter on the wing of the plane “I think they were expecting it!” You look down and see the defense of waterbenders and mecha-tanks ready to prepare to fire at you. You ground yourself then watch as large sharp pieces of ice coming in your direction and your eyes widen as you drop down on the stomach to avert getting stabbed. Asami jerks the plane moving out of the way, Mako, Bolin and you try to hold on tight as you guys yell “Asami!”. Asami prepares to maneuver the plan to dodge the attacks coming your way until she gets closer to the camp and orders Mako to fire. Asami makes another turn around then heads back to the camp to get Bolin start throwing explosives and then detonates them using a remote detonator. You guys keep this plan of attack going throwing explosives and Mako’s fire throwing causing as much destruction to the camp as possible. Giving Korra and the rest of the team an opportunity to get into the spirit portal. Bolin watches the camp in flames and exclaims “I wish Varrick was filming this. (makes a fist pump) We could call it "Nuktuk: Sky Warrior"! Bolin raises his fist in the air triumphantly. You throw another explosive “Now’s not the time, Bolin!” as you press the remote again and another series of explosions go off. Something urges you to look behind and you peer over and see two figures chasing you “uh…guys we have company!” before Asami can try to maneuver away Eska and Desna kick splash towards you guys the water blasts freeze into ice and strike the tail, breaking it in two. The tail of the plane explodes, and it goes into a nosedive. “Brace yourselves!” Asami calls out. you prepare for the impact trying to stand up once again on the wing you grunt your teeth waiting for the right time to jump off. You bend your cables off and you jump to prevent getting trampled by the plane and land in the snow hard. You slide across a couple snowed land a couple ten feet from impact and knock out cold.

You’re coming in and out of consciousness as you feel like you’re being dragged and you look up and see Unalaq and you grunt your teeth mustering up your strength and grab his wrists and flip him over into the snow, dropping you and you get up to try to unlock the cuffs but it’s not coming off _Platinum_ “Don’t bother bending yourself out, it’s pure platinum. You didn’t think we would know about you metalbender” Unalaq snared as he sends a splash of water that turns to ice and it hits you at your chest then at your head in a one two punch knocking you back out a slight bruise on the right side of your face. Unalaq and his two creepy kids drop the four of you inside his captain’s quarters. You all grunt once your bodies make impact to the ground and you fall unconscious. “what did you do” Asami looks at you then at Unalaq “she wasn’t cooperating while on our way here, so she had to be restraint.” Unalaq spoke unbothered by his actions. You wake up from your hit and hear the conversation between Korra and Unalaq you can’t figure out once they’re saying but your hearing clears and you catch Unalaq say “this time, I'll be here to level the playing field. When Harmonic Convergence comes, I will fuse with Vaatu.” Your eyes widen as you turn your head at Unalaq “And together, we will become the new Avatar. A Dark Avatar. Your era is over.” Tonraq leans forward in pain from his injuries looks at his brother both desperate and saddened of his plan.

“Think about what you're doing. I know that you've always had a deep connection with the spirits, but you're still a man. You're still my brother. You're Eska and Desna's father. Are you willing to throw your humanity away to become a monster?”

“I'll be no more of a monster than your own daughter. The only difference is that while she can barely recognize her own spiritual power, I will be in complete alignment with mine. Vaatu and I will be as one”. Unalaq starts raising his voice “No one will be able to stand against us. Keep them locked up.” Unalaq turns to his daughter as Eska turns to her father

“After the Harmonic Convergence, I will come for Korra. “

“Yes, father.”

Tenzin softly speaks his face broken with a newfound sense of lost, with Kya leaning on his shoulder. “I failed in every way. We've lost Jinora forever.”

“There's still a chance. They didn't get Bumi.” Tenzin bows his head and groans, obviously not believing in Bumi at all. You grunt as you turn on your side and sit up “here lean against me, y/n” Asami softly speaks to you as she sits up with you and you guys leans against each other’s sides while Bolin and Mako do the same. “he roughed you up pretty bad, y/n” Bolin commented as he looks over at you. You look confused back at him “what?” then look at Asami and she brings her cuffed hands up to point on her face of the bruise of where yours is. You curious you bring your hands up and touch your right side of your temple and it slightly hurts but nothing serious “it doesn’t hurt, it’s just all show. I’m fine. Honestly that drop roughed me up more than those three” you quipped and gave them a small smile to assure them you’re good. Korra looks at her cousins and grunts “we’re wasting time we need to get out of here” she whispers to the group then speaks up “Eska, Desna, listen to me. You've got to help us stop Unalaq. I know he's your father, but Vaatu has made him completely crazy.” Eska and Desna turn to face you guys “We will never turn on our father.”

“Please, if you let me out now, I can still stop him from destroying everything. Once he fuses with Vaatu, no one will be safe. Desna, he won't be your father anymore.”

Desna narrows his eyes, then moves to confront Korra angrily by her words “You don't know what you're talking about! Our father is the wisest man in the world, if he says what he is doing is right, I believe him.”

You plant your palms on the ground as you push yourself up to sit straighter, but you feel a slight rumble in the ground. “hmm?” you plant your hand firmer on the ground and it seems to grow gradually “uh…what’s going on outside?” you ask turning up to Desna and Eska “what human?” you eye her weirdly but keep going “there’s something going on outside I can hear the earth rumbling of something big outside” Bolin moves and puts his ear against the ground and feels the vibrations “oh yeah it’s big”

Desna and Eska look at each other “quit your foolish ba--” your eyes dart to the front of the camp as you and everyone’s heads perk up as you hear a shriek get louder as it approaches the tent to see Bumi spinning in a mecha-tank seat comes crashes into Eska and Desna both from behind, knocking them flat on their backs while he come to a complete stop in front of the group “All right, guys. Rescue time!” he grins as Naga and Pabu jump in the tent knocking Desna and Eska yet again and pins them to the ground.

“that’s quite the entrance, Bumi” you quipped giving him a smirk while everyone else has their jaws dropped shocked to see Bumi alive and well. Bumi starts helping to free everyone as Asami takes out a pin from her hair and helps get you out of yours. Mako and Bolin help Tonraq and everyone steps out as your eyes widen at the scene. The whole encamped is crushed and in flames “Bumi, how did you manage to take out this entire encampment on your own?” Tenzin asks his older brother in disbelief and Bumi reaches in his shirt and pulls out his flute to show Tenzin “I did it all with my trusty flute and- “he hangs his head low in despair “Oh, never mind. You wouldn't believe it anyway.” he begins marching, leading the group away. “Let's get moving” he waves the group out of the camp and you jog up to reach Bumi putting a hand on his shoulder “Hey, Bumi, I believe it. I mean sure you exaggerate a tad, but I think this story will be your best one yet” you smile as you remove your hand and follow the group heading towards the spirit portal.

Tonraq tries to say that he will fight whoever will come after Korra, but he is in no condition to fight. He can barely walk let alone stand. Korra encourages her father to go back to the healing hut and asks Asami to take her father on Oogi which Asami accepts willingly. Korra and Tonraq embrace exchanging I love you and Asami, Tonraq and Oogi take off. Korra’s plan was Tenzin and his siblings go in search for Jinora while Mako and Bolin guard the portal in case anyone comes. You were welcomed to join whoever you wanted to help while Korra closes the portal, so Vaatu can't escape.

Bolin speaks up nervous “Wait a second. Worst-case scenario: So we're fighting Unalaq, you close the portals, and let's just say something happens to you, are we gonna be trapped in there for eternity?”

“If everything goes as planned, we'll all walk out together after Harmonic Convergence. If not... “. Somber expressions appear on everyone’s faces as Korra bows her head and sighs, then looks up at the group.

“it’s an honor fighting alongside all of you. I don’t regret anything” you speak making eye contact with everyone before landing your eyes at Korra and nods

“Let's go.”

*

Everyone runs into the portal and make it into spirit world. _This is not what I was expecting the spirit world to look like. It looks so dark and evil._ Your eyes dart to the front of you and there’s a massive tree where a large spirit is trapped inside with Unalaq standing beside it. “Tenzin, go find Jinora!” Korra yells as Tenzin nods and calls for his siblings “Come on!” you look at the young adults ahead of you then at the older group and decide to join Tenzin they have Bolin maybe the siblings will require your earthbending. “I’ll join you; you might need my bending and detective skills. No time to argue” you come with your logic before Tenzin tries to rebuttal he nods, and you guys start running off. You look up at the sky as you’re running with the Kataang kids as you watch the sky turn into a deep purple then feel the earth shift you’re trying to regain balance. You slightly tumble on the ground as it shakes stronger than before, but you push yourself up quickly without skipping a beat and keep running. Your mind races back to Lin and hope she’s safe. _For Raava’s sake and mine please be safe Lin._

*

Harmonic Convergence has commenced, and a purple light blankets the landscape in the whole world. The purple light covers Republic City, Lin as she holds her hands in front of her, protecting her eyes from the wind as the dark energy sweeps over her, rendering her and her surroundings in a dark purple hue. Lin looks up toward the sky, and sees green lights dancing in the purple atmosphere. Her eyes widening as she fills with worry “y/n….” she mutters under her breath “…please be ok”. Lin was keeping her part of the deal and was hoping that you were doing the same. Hoping you were safe so you can return to the Republic City. She was really hoping that you were alive and safe so you can come back to her. _Please be okay, y/n_.


	15. The Fog

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: There is harsh language, talk about depression and death. If you are sensitive I added a trigger warning when it's going to start. It's the last paragraph of the chapter.

The four of you run into a forest then slow down and start walking through the dark forest as Bumi starts calling out for his niece, “Jinora... Jinora's spirit, do you hear me? It's your Uncle Bumi.” Tenzin groans as he tries to think of a plan on how to locate his daughter “Ah, this isn't working. We can't just randomly wander the Spirit World, call out for Jinora, and expect to find her!” Bumi looks around and then looks down at the ground. “We just need to employ the simple rules of tracking.” He kneels down and points to the ground “First we locate her footprints... then we follow them.”

You kneel down beside Bumi looking at the ground and notice no prints spirit or human it’s like no one has set foot on it. “Do you even know what Spirit footprints look like? Do spirits even leave footprints? Face it, your tracking skills won't work in the Spirit World.”

“I think most of the spirits were floating if I’m not mistaken, I mean it was worth a shot, Bumi” you look over at Bumi as you stand up while Kya sits on the ground getting in a meditative sit crossing her legs Indian style “Let me try something.” She proceeds to meditates “Ommmm...” she slowly points over to a direction “Jinora is over there. I feel a lot of spiritual energy coming from that direction.”

“We're in the Spirit World, there's spiritual energy in every direction!” Bumi waves his hands around every direction while you look around and walk away from the group looking for any kind of clue or a friendly spirit who can help. You come across a large cave and see an illuminating star shaped spirit and you’re about to step forward towards it, but you stop yourself. _You don’t know if it’s friendly stupid_. You step back and call over to the siblings “Hey if you guys are done bickering I found this cave and there’s a spirit here!” You weren’t that far away from the three siblings as you see a bald headed with a blue arrow approach you “there!” he calls out to his brother and sister as they near you “you think it’s friendly?” you ask Tenzin and he steps forward to talk to it “Spirit, hello. I'm sorry to disturb you, but I am in need of your assistance.”

A low gruff speaks while slowly red eyes start to appear one by one and you take a step back feeling on high alert

“You dare wake me, human? Humans in the Spirit World…”

“---uh…I think we should..” you speak as you take another step back as Kya and Bumi glance at you seeing you back up then quickly look at the spirit

\--belong in one place only!” the spirit roars and darts the Dark Spider Spirit emerges from the cave, resembling a giant scorpion at a super-fast pace right at the four of you.

“—RUN!” you yell as you Bumi and Kya start sprinting full speed out of there with Tenzin following a couple feet behind.

You skid to a halt as you reach the edge of a cliff with Kya, Bumi, and Tenzin pushing up against you. You look over your shoulder as you see this creature approaching fast. You take the initiative to jump leaving the siblings and yell as you fall down. You reach down the trees down below and bend out your cables grabbing onto a branch and jerk your head up to hear the siblings screaming down below. You bend another cable and quickly decide to save one of them. You wrap it around Kya’s waist, preventing her to hit the ground then gently bringing her down on the ground before you drop yourself down standing up. “Thanks, y/n” she breathes, and you shake your head catching your breath “anytime”. Bumi dusts himself off “Well, that didn't work. Now where are we?” Tenzin uses his airbending to clean himself “we’re completely lost.” You look around and find a path “well nowhere to go but keep moving forward” you look at the three then start walking forward as they follow suit. The path opens up and you’re soon walking down a path of illuminating mushrooms as you walk by. After a couple of minutes of walking you see the same mushrooms from before and your eyebrows raise after the third time you start to question it “uh, I think we’re walking in circles” Bumi denies it “no, we aren’t we’re fine” you think about it for a second but decide to keep walking after two more times of seeing the same mushrooms Tenzin steams up and explodes “We're walking in circles! I've seen that same Spirit Mushroom five times!” you jerk to him “why haven’t you said anything two rounds before?! I said I thought we were running in circles”

Tenzin stutters “I wasn’t sure but now I am sure” 

“That's not the same mushroom.”

“Yes, I am.” A voice pops in by the mushroom and you see a mouth appear on the mushroom.

“See? Even it knows we're lost.” Tenzin points at the mushroom as he looks at Bumi dragging a hand on his face as he groans. “Oh, sure, listen to a fungus over your own brother.” Bumi pouts folding his arms. “hmmm, strangely this isn’t the first time I’ve seen a talking mushroom” you mutter, and all three siblings stop to look at you “uh…never mind” you quickly add turning away. Kya raises an eyebrow as she thinks about it “dragon’s beard?” she asks curiously as she eyes you and you side eye her “yeah how’d you know” your eyes widen as you turn your head to look at her “I’ve…might have dabbled once or twice” a light blush creeps up as she confesses to the group. Tenzin scoffs while you and Bumi are amused and you see Kya in a new light while she looks at you the same way “huh…how about that” you both exchange a smile. A strange noise sounding like an ominous that causes the four of you to jerk your heads to that direction, Kya hiding behind her brothers “What's that?” Bumi looks over at the mushroom “Mushroom, is that you?”

“Nope, wasn't me.”

There’s another noise like a footstep coming from the right side and two figures comes out the shadow causing you all to gasp. Soon an older man and a fox come out and your guard is lowered slightly “Iroh?” Bumi looks surprised to see the man. “How...? Where...? It's been so long.” Tenzin looks easily just as surprised. _So they know this man. Wait is this the same Iroh from the stories your dad told you growing up about Avatar Aang?_ “Almost 40 years. It's nice to see you again.” Iroh smiles with his arms behind his back as he greets your group. You watch as Tenzin and Iroh talk.

“How did you know we were here? “

“My friendly spirit fox told me you were lost. I came to show you the way out.”

“Iroh, we are grateful, but we're not looking for the way out. We're looking for my daughter.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, but you shouldn't be here. Vaatu has escaped, and darkness threatens to take over. “

“I’m not leaving until I find Jinora. “

“I understand but I beg you to be careful. If you travel too deep into the Spirit World, you could end up in a place where only the lost will ever find you.” You look down in thought while Tenzin looks to his brother and sister with concern. They look at each as Tenzin looks back to Iroh, but Iroh has vanished. Your eyes furrow while you think _A place where only the lost will ever find you_ … you voice out your thoughts out loud “A place where only the lost will ever find you…like a lost and found? Do they have a lost and found here in the spirit world?” you comment as you look up at Tenzin he listens to your words and thinks “A place where only the lost can find you... That's it! I know where to find Jinora!” He motions for you guys to follow and you guys start running back to where you guys just came from and starts clueing you in on his plan “We have to go back to the cave”. You, Kya and Bumi skid to a stop with Kya initiating the talk “woah, are you crazy, Tenzin?!”

you cut in “Maybe you don’t remember…that a big scary spider-scorpion is there who can, oh I don’t know, eat us!” you quip putting your airs up in the air.

“yeah, maybe you’re not feeling right in the head baby brother” Bumi puts the back of his head on Tenzin’s forehead to which Tenzin quickly swats away “I am fine, Bumi!” he exclaims then groans “please… just… trust me” he pleads his siblings then looks at you. Kya, Bumi and you look at each other not really sure what Tenzin is thinking before looking back at Tenzin and give him a nod. The four of you proceed to run back to the cliff Tenzin and Kya go up using their bending while you bend your cables to grab on the edge of the cliff and tell Bumi to grab onto you and you pull the both of you up with ease. The group continues on back to the cave as you stand outside it just like the previous time. Its lure is still dangling and glowing in the dark.

“Are you sure this is the best way to find Jinora?” Bumi asks his brother

“Yes” Tenzin turns to face the opening of the cave and waves his arms, gathering wind in his hands before shooting a gust into the cave “Hey, you, spirit- Wake up!” you put your guard up on high as you wince waiting for a response then see the red eyes light up in the dark “You again?” The spirit screeches and emerges you grit your teeth closing your eyes as it is spitting web at the group.

*

You’re looking at the sky looking bemused as you all are being dragged over the grassy ground in the webbing. It feels like quite a walk this creature is taking you four, so you speak up “Still think this is a good idea?” you deadpanned still looking at the sky. “Yeah, nice going Tenzin” Bumi huffs out Kya sighs letting out a puff. Tenzin’s ears redden “I know what I’m doing!” Kya speaks up “You’re screaming right in my ear! We can just stop talking” she snaps. Everyone grumpily agrees and the rest of the way was kept in silence. You feel the scorpion-spider lift you guys up and swings the group to the front of it as you’re all daggling over a cliff upside down. You’re eyes widen feeling your stomach drop to your throat and look quickly look at the siblings all looking scared you gulp grabbing whatever you can find and grab Kya’s hand “sorry, being suspended in the air where I can’t see the ground freaks me out” you mutter. Kya didn’t seem to mind considering she was just as scared as you were, so it was nice to get some sort of comfort, “I thought we were going to be taken to a prison.” Kya asked Tenzin. “This is a prison.” He responded back. The dark spirit spider started to talk “Welcome to The Fog of Lost Souls. You will never escape.” The spirit swings the four of you over the edge and the webbing comes undone, letting the you guys loose to fall into the fog. All of you yell your hand slides off of Kya from the force of the swing as you drop through the fog. Your eyes dart around looking for something to grab on with your cables, but this fog is so thick you can’t see a thing quickly lose sight of the siblings. You land hard on the hard earth floor and groan as you slowly push yourself up then fear starts to come sink in. You don’t see Kya, Bumi, or Tenzin and your breathing starts to quicken. “Bumi! Kya! Tenzin!” you call out hoping to hear one of them in this dense fog. “y/n!” you turn your head in the direction of the voice it sounds like Tenzin. “Tenzin?” you call out again and he yells your name “hold on, I’ll come to you just stand where you are. Keep calling out!” you nod to yourself as you raise loud stand in place “Lovely weather we’re having today. I suspect the fog be denser by nightfall” you awkwardly try to keep the mood light even though you are scared of the unknown. You’re squinting your eyes to look for any figures approaching you when you see something “Tenzin?” you call out and you make out the robes and you run to him “thank the spirits!” you hug him glad to find someone. “We need to find Kya and Bumi. We have to stick together and remain focused.” He puts his hands on your shoulder as he advises you. You take in his words inhaling deeply then nod as you both start walking calling out for Bumi and Kya until you’ve found them. Tenzin directs where to go “What kind of prison doesn't have any bars or walls? We could walk right out of here.” Bumi asks Tenzin as he looks around at how open it is

“The Fog of Lost Souls is a spirit prison for humans. I read about it in an ancient text. The Fog is actually a spirit... that infects your mind and slowly drives you mad, imprisoning you in your own darkest memories.”

Your eyes widen as Tenzin explains and you’re about to freak yourself out then you shake your head, knocking it off. _Focus. Keep your mind focused, y/n._

Kya stays close to Tenzin “How long can you be trapped in here?”

You see a dark figure walking around and move behind Bumi “what was that” behind them a shadowy figure walks by. It comes into view and is revealed to be Commander Zhao, his hair disheveled, “I am Zhao the Conqueror! I am the moonslayer! I will capture the Avatar! I am Zhao the Conqueror! I am the moonslayer! I will capture the Avatar!”

You all stare at the guy mumbling out as Kya speaks “Hopefully we're not trapped in here as long as that guy.” Just then Zhao sees Tenzin and grabs his collar pulling Tenzin towards him “You! You're him! The last airbender!” Tenzin yells “Ah! No! Get off me!”

“You've grown... But I will still defeat you!” Bumi and Kya grab him and toss him away, Kya knocking him back with waterbending and you bend a column of earth from under him and catapult him away. You all run away as Zhao gets back up “Come back, Avatar! Face me! I am Zhao the Conqueror! I will capture you! Victory will be mine!” Zhao slowly disappears into the fog and his last words echo. “Okay, we need to stick together so we don’t run off and get lost.” Tenzin speaks up as you all stop running after getting a safe distance away,

“what like hold hands?” Kya suggests to which Tenzin shakes his head “no that’s too easy. We can easily let go and run away” You look down at your cables their metal but they’re pliable enough to be used as a rope “we could tie ourselves to one another make like a human chain” you pull out some of your cable. Tenzin listens to your idea “nice idea, but not your cables you would be able to bend your way out we need to use an object we can’t bend out of” Tenzin looks down and remembers his belt cord “we’ll use this” he unwraps some of the cord and starts tying a cord to Kya's waist, then gives you and Bumi another cord to tie around your own waists. You connect your cord to Bumi’s and once everyone is connected to each other

“If we stay together, we'll find Jinora and make it out of this fog.” you guys walk in a diamond formation. You all take turns and start calling out for Jinora, then it circles back to Tenzin

 _“_ Jinora! Jinora!” you don’t know how long you’ve been in this fog you can’t see anything within three feet radius of you. it’s dense above just as it is all around you then Bumi gasps and

puts a hand on Tenzin stopping the group “Wait a second.” Tenzin turns around to face him “what? Do you hear something?” Bumi's eyes start to widen as he looks very frightened and starts sweating “Yes, they're all around us. The cannibals, they're everywhere.”

Kya yells at Bumi “Stop playing around Bumi! It’s not the time for one of your pranks!”

Bumi looks at Kya then jerks his head at you and starts screaming grabbing your shoulders “Cannibal!! Get away from me Cannibal!” Bumi starts shaking you and shoving you away “Bumi, it’s y/n!” you yell at him his eyes are so wide and he hasn’t blinked as he stares at you. You’ve never seen a person’s eyes filled with so much fear and you start to internally panic thinking that Bumi, the fun crazy loveable jokester, would hurt you. Kya’s eyes widen as realization sets that Bumi isn’t doing an awful prank and steps up to him “Bumi, stop!” she yells her voice now filled with fear watching her older brother losing it, she tries to calm Bumi. You put your hands on him and try to pry his hands off of your shoulders his grip on you tight. He notices the rope from the corner of his eyes and quickly let’s go of you and starts untying your knot off of his. “No, Bumi! Don’t!” you quickly reach over to stop him and he fights you over it. Tenzin grabs Bumi’s hands then his shoulders turning him to makes him look at him “Bumi, you must focus your mind right now. There are no cannibals. y/n is not a cannibal. She’s a friend” Bumi shakes his head “Yes, there are! Yes, she is! She’s gonna eat every last one of us!” your eyes widen as you start to lose focus then you peer over Bumi’s shoulder and notice Kya starting to act strange. She is looks very lost and confused then slowly brings her hands up to her face and looks at them. You look at her and slowly call out to her “Kya?” Kya slowly turns her head over where she heard your voice and starts to scream loudly “Aah! Who are you two?!” She doesn’t see you behind Bumi as she screams at the horror of the two bend standing next to her. Tenzin grabs Kya's shoulders “Kya, we're your brothers. You must remember before the Fog infects you.” Kya shakes and squints her eyes glaring at Tenzin “No, you are just a vision! I have no family! You can't tie me down!” she yells out.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

**TRIGGER WARNING**

**READ AT YOUR OWN RISK**

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_No family…. Your parents. They’re dead… You’ve always feared and wondered if their deaths were your fault. Your dad got sick shortly after your fight. He got sick from overworking too much because he was trying to pay off your medical fees. Your mom died because her heart broke from losing your father. It’s your fault. You’re the reason your parents are dead. You’re the reason you and your sisters became orphans at 16, 14 and 12._

Your eyes water as your mind races with hearing those words over and over in your mind. “it’s my fault” you mutter bringing your hands up to the sides of your head covering your ears

“It’s my fault your dead mom and dad!” you cry out, the voice grows louder, and you wince with guilt, regret, and your heart filling with so much pain as your mind fills with images: seeing your dad tired and growing sicker. Watching your mom spoon feeding him. The moment your dad passes. The funeral. Your mother falling into a deep depression. You trying to feed and dress your mom but she’s just a body with no spirit. Finding your mom dead in her bed, passed away in her sleep, after waking up one morning. Her funeral. The looks on your sisters’ faces as they look up to you

“Stop it!” you yell out trying to stop the images from closing your eyes tight and squeezing your head.

Tenzin looks over and rushes to your side putting his hands on your shoulders

“y/n, it’s an illusion. It’s not real! Focus your mind. Do not give in to fear!” he tries to calm you as you try to focus but the images are too strong, and they start to overpower your mind. Bumi takes that opportunity of Tenzin leaving his side to untie his cord

“They're closing in! I gotta get outta here! Aah!” he runs off. Kya confused unties her cord and runs off as well screaming. Tenzin let’s go of you and rushes to his siblings “No! Bumi! Kya! Come back!”

You open your eyes quickly and you see Tenzin only it’s not him he has taken the form of your father

“Dad?” you look at Tenzin. Tenzin looks around and you see his face, your fathers face, and your eyes water more. Tenzin starts to talk to you and try to calm you, but his voices starts getting replaced with the voice of your father,

“why do you have to such a meddlesome reckless fool, y/n! Your mother and I slaved and wasted away to pay off your medical fees. Was that fight worth it, y/n?!” You don’t say anything and watch Tenzin approach you while saying something as he grabs your shoulder like before to ground you. You hear the muffled sounds of Tenzin but quickly your father’s voice comes back as your father shakes you hard

“Answer me, y/n! was trying to be a hero to that boy worth killing your parents! Leaving your sisters without us! You’re not **worthy** to be with anyone, murderer. **Do you really think _Lin_ is satisfied to be dating you?!**Answer me, y/n!” your father’s voice roaring at you and you ball your fists as tears run down your face. You thought you could be strong and stay focused but your father bringing up Lin was the straw that broke the camelephant’s back. You can’t take it anymore and scream in agony, jerking yourself away from your father to yourself free,

“NO IT WASN’T WORTH IT! IT WASN’T WORTH YOU AND MOM DYING, DAD!” you yell out as you force yourself away and stumble back, falling on your ass then hurryingly untie the knot on your cord and get up sprinting away from the illusion of your father,

“Y/N!” a mesh of Tenzin’s voice with your father’s as they yell out for you to come back.

You’re balling your eyes out as you’re desperately trying to find a way out of this hellhole. You run at once direction before running to another still being haunt by the images of your parents. Your eyes dart all over the place as you step backwards and your back is pressed against a rock wall and you stumble back, dragging your back down along it, falling down on your knees slouched over. Heaving sobs until soon you stop abruptly the tears falling down and finishes then you slowly lift your head up. Looking up a head of you your eyesight starts to go hazy and start to feel a sense of emptiness inside you. You feel cold, dark, and empty as the heaviness of your fears causes your head to feel heavy, you hang your head down low.

You couldn’t stay focused. You’ve succumbed into your darkest memories.

You’re now a prisoner to the Fog.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you made it to the end of the chapter I apologize if it was harsh or dark. It is said that the Fog infects people's mind and effectively drives them insane by imprisoning them in their own darkest memories. I wanted to really tackle what possibly a person could go through if they were trapped in The Fog.


	16. Resolved and Returned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y/s/s/n = your second sister's name  
> y/s/n= your sister name  
> y/a/n = your aunt's name
> 
> Warning: Mature content

You feel something pull your arm up and you get up to your feet and soon you feel your hand slip into someone else’s hand. You’re defeated. Not caring where you’re being taken to. Nothing, absolutely nothing can be worse than where you’re at right now. You allowed this hand to keep you anchored as you walk along side it. You’re walking up an incline and soon your mind starts to clear up, feeling your eyes focusing and you start to blink rapidly looking around. A sigh of relief escapes from Bumi “Ah... What happened?” you look up the arm you’re holding revealing it to be Bumi and you guys keep on walking as Kya’s mind seems to have cleared and speaks up “I think our brother saved us.” Bumi and Kya smiles at Tenzin as they see Jinora in his arms. Jinora softly speaks as she recognizes her father and hugs him “Dad”. Tenzin hugs his daughter holding her close “You're going to be okay, sweetie. I'm here.” A pink spirit butterfly lands on Jinora's arm “What happened? The last thing I remember is dark spirits taking me away.”

“You were trapped in The Fog of Lost Souls, but I wasn't going to let you stay there.”

“I'm so happy to see you, Dad.”

You let go of Bumi’s hand as Kya and Bumi walk over to hug him and Jinora, butterfly spirits landing on Tenzin and Jinora. You stand back and watch the family embrace for some moments, a smile appearing on your lips and a tear of happiness forming to see young Jinora reunited with her father. Bumi and Kya look over at you, waving and nodding you to join in. You don’t want to ruin the family moment, but your heart feels like you need it and you slowly walk over, joining in the group hug. Your head resting on Tenzin’s back as Kya and Bumi each put a hand on the back of your shoulders.

*

Kya and Bumi walk ahead of the group together as you walk beside Jinora with Tenzin on her other side. As your walking you look down to Jinora and softly talk “I’m so happy to see you again, Jinora. We’ve all missed you terribly” she smiles looking at you “I’m happy to see you too, y/n. I’ve missed you all too” you smile back. You’ve always had a soft spot for kids. Jinora with butterfly spirits on her shoulders as she turns around, looking worried. “Jinora?” you notice she stopped walking and stop with her causing her father, aunt, and uncle to stop and turn back to look at her. “The world's in trouble.” she softly says 

“What are you talking about? How do you know?” he speaks to his daughter.

“I can feel it.”

Bumi looks down to his niece with concern on his face “What happened?”

“It's Korra.” Jinora gently gets one of the butterfly spirits from her shoulder and hands it to Tenzin “This light spirit will guide you out of the spirit world.” The Jinora’s spirit begins to glow light blue “I have to go help.” Suddenly Jinora’s spirit starts to fade away.

Tenzin steps forward and reaches out to his daughter “Jinora, wait!” but she vanishes into specks of light. Your eyes widen as you watch the young spirit disappear before your eyes.

“If it’s Korra then we need to hurry back to the spirit portal” you turn to Tenzin and he shakes his head “not without Jinora. I cannot leave my daughter behind!” he raises his voice you put your hand on his arm “Jinora went to help Korra, her spirit might with her now.”

“Let’s hurry!” Kya says and you four start to sprint back in the direction of the spirit portal.

As you run closer to the portal you look around for Korra, Mako and Bolin not seeing anyone, so you guys step out the portal and look in the material world. Tenzin points over at three figures on the ground

“They're over here!” You guys kneel down to the unconscious Korra, Mako, and Bolin

“Please, wake up.” Tenzin whispers to Korra and picks her up like a sleeping child while Kya examines Mako as you examine Bolin.

“They're going to be all right, but I need to get them into some spirit water right away.” Kya looks over at the three of you, Bumi picks up Mako by the armpits as you and Kya pick up Bolin putting his arms over each of your shoulders and start entering the spirit portal. Bumi sets Mako down in the water as you and Kya start lowering Bolin down into the water next to his brother. Tenzin walks over and lowers Korra into the water. Once Tenzin walks out of the water Kya starts to heal the trio in the spirit water. You’ve never seen a waterbender heal three people at once. She is a powerful waterbender. You look at Kya and the way she’s healing gives you a familiar feeling, but you still can’t find out why you keep getting this feeling when you look at Kya. You look back at the trio and watch as one by one start sitting up gasping as they wake up and breath deeply.

Tenzin walks up to Korra helping her out of the spirit water

“Thank goodness you're all okay.”

Korra looks up at Tenzin as she takes his help

“Did you find Jinora?” not seeing Jinora with your group. You look down at the ground briefly as Tenzin responded

“I was able to rescue her soul, but she wasn't ready to return to her body yet. She sensed the world was in grave danger.” Korra’s face saddens

“She was right.” She walks over to a nearby rock and takes a seat. All of you turn to look at Korra as Tenzin continued

“Were you able to stop Unalaq and Vaatu?”

“No, they fused, then Vaatu ripped Raava right out of me and destroyed her. Vaatu won.”

Your eyes widen hearing Korra say that Vaatu won and you hear Bolin freaking out

“No! I'm too young to live through 10,000 years of darkness! Korra, can't you talk to one of your past lives or something?”

“When Vaatu destroyed Raava, he destroyed my connection to the past Avatars too.”

“If that's true, then- “

“The cycle is over. I'm the last Avatar.” Korra’s eyes water and tears rolls down her cheek

“I'm so sorry, Tenzin.” Korra begins to sob, and you’re all looking at her with worry and concern. You slowly step over to Korra and sit beside her putting a hand on her shoulder and pull her into a hug and let her sob out on your shoulder as you softly rub the back of her head. Something your mother would do to you when you cried. Korra has become like the annoying little sister you never wanted, but you’ve grown to care about. You never want to see a friend hurt or sad. Kya slowly steps up to Tenzin putting a hand on his shoulder,

“She needs you now, more than ever.”

*

Lin and President Raiko looking down at UnaVaatu from inside an RCPD airship.

“It's going to destroy the entire city.” Raiko watches in horror when he sees that UnaVaatu has noticed the airship. He proceeds to power up, his red markings turning purple, and he fires a huge energy beam from his chest at the airship. The beam hits the tail of the airship and it creates a fire as the ship begins falling towards the city, turning in circles. Lin looks as she watches her officers holding on to the rails as the alarm sounds. She walks over to the back of the airship and puts her hand pulling the lever to open the door, the ship's ramp opens up behind her. “We're going down!” Lin calls out to everyone on board and starts to order her men to jump out to safety. One by one each man jumps out of the falling airship and use their wires to swing to safety. Lin puts her arm around Raiko as he holds onto Lin before she also shoots out her wire. It wraps around a stone dragon head on the roof of a building, and she swings off with Raiko. Lin and Raiko land down hard on a roof and start to slide over a roof, destroying the tiles and stopping just at the edge as the airship falls behind them. Lin stands and Raiko is laying on his side. Lin watches UnaVaatu in the bay as he swings his arms to the side, then thrusts his fingers down at the water in front of him. His tendrils shoot from his arms and into the water and ground below, tendrils erupt from the water and cover the area, turning into vines and they start wrapping around buildings and structures all around the city. Lin looks at the horror of her beloved city being taken over by a large spirit but wonders what happened with Korra. What happened with you. Are you guys alive or did this monster kill the avatar and the rest of you?

*

After Korra collects herself a bit she pulls back and you set a hand on her back then notice Tenzin walks up to her and you step up and walk away to give them a moment. You walk back to the rest of the group as you sigh deeply and slide your hands in your pants pocket. “She’s broken…. what are we going to do?” you mutter. “is there anything we can do? You didn’t see UnaVaatu he’s massive and way too powerful?” Mako looks at you and Bolin joins in “yeah, there is no way to beat him without Korra”. You look over as you watch Korra and Tenzin walk to the tree and look down and speak softly “Korra has given up on herself. She thinks that without Raava she has no chance of winning against UnaVaatu.”

“Well isn’t she right. Without Raava she isn’t powerful enough?” Mako turns to you as Kya and Bumi listen to the conversation you look up at him and shake your head

“I don’t know anything about the how the whole Avatar thing started, but my guess is since they are the bridge between the spirit and the material world then maybe it didn’t always start off like that.” Everyone looks at you confused but you continue on “What if the first avatar was just a normal person who ran into Raava partnered up with her to bring peace and balance to the world, together.” You look down as you voice out your thoughts

“Korra has focused too much being the Avatar but hasn’t put much thought into herself. She’s been relying on the light spirit but hasn’t given attention to her own spirit. She needs to be reminded of who is Korra. She’s using Raava as a crutch thinking that Raava is the sole reason she is the Avatar. She has always been strong, tough, and fearless. She’s all that not because she’s the avatar but because that’s who Korra is. As her friends, team, and support system it’s our job to help remind Korra that.” Everyone listens to you and you finally look up then look over as everyone follows your gaze to the direction of Tenzin and Korra and watch as they go inside the tree. Kya looks at you “you sound like you’ve spent a lot of time on mediation and spirituality” you look back at Kya and nod “yeah, I have. I used to be in my own little world of darkness in a way. Through meditation and spiritual grown it has given me a lot of clarity and depth on myself and life. It also gave me the ability to read people really well, well most of the time.” you let a silence come between the two of you before adding “Korra and I haven’t always seen eye to eye, but she has good intentions, a good heart, and she’s a decent friend.” You smile softly.

You guys wait around and see Tenzin walk out of the tree and Mako asks him

“how’s Korra?”

“she’s mediating” He simply states, and you guys continue waiting until you all notice a large blue light coming out of the tree and see Korra's spirit exiting from the tree and becoming giant sized. You all look up and watch as Korra towers over all of you shocked and filled with are of the scene you’re witnessing. She steps to the Southern Portal and reaches to the light. It glows, and Korra is sucked into it with arcs of electricity, you and everyone else watching in disbelief. Bumi looks at Tenzin “Uh...what did you say to her, exactly?”

*

Lin shields her eyes a massive blue bright light some hurdling from the sky and slams into UnaVaatu. _Great now there are two giants fighting in my city_. She watches the fight play out in the bay of Republic City.

*

Your feet feel vibrations in the earth, and you kneel down putting your palm on the ground “um guys, there is something coming” you stand up and turn around to see a large swarm of dark spirits coming at the group. You point at the spirits coming your way “there!”

“They're coming for Korra!” Mako shouts as he steps forward and shoots lighting from his fingers, by Tenzin shooting a blast of air, Kya throwing a stream of water, Bolin bending a wave of rocks, you bend your cables out to use as whips all in succession. You guys start fighting the dark spirits, pressuring them to get back you whip your cables at a spirit splitting some in half.

A dark spirit's tendril wraps around Bolin's ankle and starts dragging him you finish hitting a spirit when you yell out “Bolin!” you try making your way over as he calls for help only to see a stream of water hit the spirit and it disappears, letting go of Bolin. You look in the direction of the stream of water thinking it’s Kya, but Kya is beside Mako and realize it’s Eska and Desna as they leap to Bolin’s defense and start protecting him from a snake spirit ready to strike him. They destroy it, each throwing a blade of water that cuts down into more spirits. A spirit tries to take you from surprise, and you stomp your feet on the ground bending a column of up from the ground uppercutting the spirit sending it flying back. “I used to think spirits would be cool, but they are really annoying now!” you yell out in frustration as you spin kick sending your cables out to hit a spirit in its head as it disappears from your attack. “it’s the darkness happening in the world!” Tenzin comments as he sends a powerful gush of wind at three spirits charging at him sending them fifty feet. Soon you’re getting pushed further back into the tree getting overcome by the swarm of spirits “they’re too many of them” you yell out as you climb inside the tree. Tenzin, Mako, and you guard the opening with sending several fire, wind, and flicks of your cable. “Mako look out!” you warn Mako trying to pull him away from a spirit’s tendrils, but it knocks the both of you back. You land on your back while Mako on his stomach and you slowly grunt getting back up. Tenzin jumps back inside the tree and continues to blast the spirits back with wind. Your eyes widen as the spirits begin entering the tree, all of them blocking the only way out. A bright light shoots into the tree and you groan out as you block your eyes with your arms and balance yourself as the earth shakes as something lands. You slowly lower your arms as the bright light is gone and open your eyes seeing all the dark sprits are gone. You all slowly climbs up to the edge to see what’s happening where a giant Korra is towering over the group with something in her hands. She opens her palms to let Raava and Jinora’s spirit descend down to the ground. “woah” you look at Jinora as she has a bright radiating light around her. You watch as the giant sized Korra spirit contorts and gets smalls as she gets back into the tree, then everyone looks up at Korra once again in her material body walking out. You all watch as Raava creates a spiral with her body as she and Korra go up to the tip of the energy arc. Korra raises her hand up to the arc and it crackles with a large amount of electricity. Arcs of lightning shoot down from it to the center of the ground below. The top of the arc rises and splits going back to the two different portals. The atmosphere turns bright and sunny no longer the dark purple light illuminating the sky. Korra slowly descends to the ground and lands in front of the group as she opens her eyes in her Avatar state then comes back as herself "It's over “.

*

Mako and Bolin run towards Korra while everyone else follows.

“You were amazing” Tenzin compliments Korra giving her a proud smile.

“I always knew you could do it” you smile looking at Korra as you slide your hands into your pockets. Bolin pumps his fists in the air

“And the way you turned all gigantic like that, wow! I just wish Varrick had been here to film it, it would have been the greatest mover ever! After the Nuktuk Chronicles, of course.”

Korra frowns a moment and looks down sadly as she sees her cousins over Bolin’s shoulder and approaches them.

You look away and give Korra the moment to talk to her cousins and Bolin to talk to Eska while you stand over with Bumi, Mako, and Kya. You hear the flutters of wings and see a dragonfly bunny spirit flying around Bumi “Bum-Ju, you're okay!” he hugs Bum-Ju “and I missed you, little buddy.”

Your eyebrows raise amused of the name

“Bum-Ju?” you call out to him and he smiles happy to have Bum-Ju back to him

“short for Bumi Jr.” Bumi holds Bum-Ju close to his chest,

“oh…. that’s… nice. Out of all the names in the world you went with yours… Cool” you quipped as Bumi laughs softly. You watch as Bum-Ju closes his eyes contently and start chirping softly.

“he sure is a cutie though” you walk up towards Bumi and Bum-Ju

“May I pet him?” you ask Bumi and he nods, and you softly scratch the back of his ears which causes Bum-Ju to chirp more. You and Bumi exchange a soft chuckle as you smile when Bum-Ju flies off Bumi’s arms and flies away only to come back with a small stick. He and Bum-Ju go and play fetch as you sit down on a rock besides Kya enjoying a much needed break. Once Korra and Tenzin finish with their conversation you all walk back to the spirit portal and walk through to get back to the human world.

*

Once you make it back to camp you make a visit to your sister at the healing hut. You wave at her and give her a soft smile, “have the time for one more?” you joke and she looks you over and sees the bruise Unalaq did on the right side of your temple “well at least it’s not anything serious” she mutters as she begins healing your injuries “see I can be safe. I’m not always reckless” you quipped, and your sister rolls her eyes. “How was it fighting with the Avatar?” she speaks softly as she looks down at you and you smile “it’s like fighting along anyone else except that she is able to bend the four elements. It was scary though before the light of this war storm cleared. There was a moment I thought UnaVaatu had won. ”Your sister listened and then finishes the healing session “well you’re a hero. You helped save the world, y/n” you smile briefly before thinking if you should bring up what you remember from the fog. You tear up a bit from the emotions you felt in that experience and dart out the hut heading outside. Your sister alarmed of what happened and runs after you “y/n? What’s wrong!” she runs down the steps and catches up to you while you’re breathing deeply. You turn around and control yourself

“I—I…was it my fault?” you ask your sister and she is confused by the sudden question. “is what your fault?” her voice filled with confusion but concern and glance away then back at her “did mom and dad die because of me”. Your sister sucks in a sharp breath before sighing and shakes her head

“no, why would you think that?” she puts her hands on your shoulder,

“It’s not a coincidence that dad got sick because of his constant working at the construction site. He was trying to pay off the healer who healed me.” you turned around and stepped away.

“what?” your sister gasp and then followed you “Is that what you think? That’s not true at all, y/n!” you turn around getting upset “how do you know, y/s/n?!” you spat out. Your sister’s face softens as she comes to the realization “is this why you left Ba Sing Se and refused to live with uncle?” you looked down

“I didn’t feel comfortable living with him knowing that I was the one who caused his sister’s death…” you confessed it out loud the first time to yourself and to your sister. “y/n…you’ve been feeling all this unnecessary self-guilt for a little over a decade.” You sister picks up your face, so you look at her as she holds your chin before she speaks

“Dad getting sick wasn’t your fault. We used to live in the outer ring of Ba Sing Se, you remember how terrible it was there, the smell alone gives me nightmare and still makes me want to vomit and I have been there in years” she laughs softly but you don’t join in and she continues

“When you got hurt by those boys, Mom and Dad went to get you and the healers said that the healer who saved you paid for everything. They didn’t have to pay or owed any healer a thing. Dad made it his life mission to work hard and save enough money so we could move into the upper ring. He got a bad cut on the job; he didn’t think much of it, but it ended up getting infected. He never told mom or anyone until it was too late. It had spread to much and the damage was done. Well mom… she loved dad so much and couldn’t fathom with the idea of being without him. So I like to think her spirit wanted to be with him, so her body followed. y/s/s/n and I don’t blame you at all. It was just a terrible experience that we dealt with as children.”

You take in this new information that you’re hearing from your sister, but still with reservations you look at her “how do you know all this? You were 14 when they passed”

“Aunt y/a/n told me the truth about them once I got older. That whole mom and dad getting sick was just a shorten version.” She rubs your back as you process everything

“so it wasn’t my fault. I carried this guilt for basically nothing”

“yup, you ran away from everyone because you thought up this false narrative about yourself. Hopefully now you’ll visit more than just a couple days?” she smiles encouragingly

“we miss you and though we are glad that you had settled in Zaofu then Republic City, and now that you’re fighting with the Avatar, but we still miss our sister”. You look up at your sister and feel like a heavy weight has been released from your gut.

You’ve practically ran away from your family because you were filled with guilt and shame of what you thought you cause. You traveled the world to forget and find yourself a new identity than the one you had. You didn’t remember yourself as the poor girl from Ba Sing Se, but a thrill seeking traveler. Even though you did run away if it wasn’t for that you wouldn’t have had the guts to travel the world and learn all the things you have. You wouldn’t have experienced all the culture and different nations. You wouldn’t have known you were a metalbender. Most likely you wouldn’t have made way to Republic City. It’s like you had to go through all that to find your path and so far that path has led to your current place, Team Avatar and Lin. It is saddening to have lost your parents, but you’ve come to realize that this might have needed to happen in order for you to walk your own path. After the both of you finish talking she walks you back to your hut “you feeling better? With the injury and the talk?” you nod and smile

“yeah both are cured and resolved. I feel way lighter on my feet.” You laugh the first since time since that talk. Your sister was about to go before she asks you

“so who’s the special someone in your life?” your eyes widen as a light blush shows up on your cheeks “what?”

“oh come on. Remember I can sense and can slightly see auras, and yours, dear sister, looks purplish red. You’ve always seen the world in a different way but this time it’s vibrant as if every fiber of your being is alive. Or am I wrong?” she analyzes you and you keep quiet but then you give up and sigh

“ok yes, it’s true… I’ve met someone. It hasn’t become serious, but I hope it does one day.” 

“Can I meet her. Is she here? Is she cute!” you sister looks up excitedly and you let out a laugh “Hold your ostrich-horses! No, she’s not here. She’s not even my girlfriend and you already want to meet her!” The both of you laugh then you sigh dreamily as you think about Lin “Of course she is, she’s the most amazing and beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” Your eyes twinkle as you think about Lin and your sister sees how much in love you are and smiles that you’ve found someone. You both give each other a hug before she goes back to work at the healing hut and you in your campsite.

*

Once Tonraq recovered there was a ceremony set to happen on the steps of the Chief’s residence. You look out towards the large group of people as Team Avatar, Master Katara, Tenzin, the Bumis, Kya, and Jinora stand at the tops of the steps as Korra is at a podium addressing the people of the Water Tribe.

> “The War of The Water Tribes is over. Unalaq has been defeated and the Northern fleet is returning home. The Water Tribes will always be allies, but the Southern Tribe is now independent! And the Southern Council of Elders has appointed my father, Tonraq, to be your new Chief!” the crowd cheers as Tonraq steps forward and waves, you smile as think at how your mom would be happy to know that her home has gotten independence from the North “I've realized that even though we should learn from those who came before us, we must also forge our own path. So that is why I've decided to keep the portals open. Humans can now physically enter the Spirit World and spirits will be free to roam our world. I will no longer be the bridge. Humans and spirits must learn to live together. My mission will always be to use Raava's light spirit to guide the world toward peace and balance. Harmonic Convergence has caused a shift in the planet's energy, I can feel it. Things will never be the same again. We are entering a new age.”

*

You’ve tried radioing Lin on the ship, but you haven’t managed to get any signal or a response back. You think either the signal is bad or maybe she’s busy in the city. The ship docks late at night and you help everyone bring their stuff down. Tenzin offered you a room at the temple, you thank him, but you decided to crash at Asami’s instead you should’ve asked her first but you’re sure she’ll be fine with it. As you help Asami put her bags in her car parked nearby where she left it. You’re looking around the city and notice the massive changes for instant the vines wrapped around the buildings. You turn to Asami “Hey, can you drop me off at the police headquarters instead?” Asami side glances at you “uhh sure…”, instead of turning to your usual way to get home she takes the opposite turn and brings you to the station. You look up and exhale deeply. “You want me to wait down here?” you shake your head as you step out the car and grab your bag “nah, I’m good. There’s just something I have to do first before getting home” you smile and Asami sees this look in your eyes that causes her to smirk, picking up on what you’re about to do “go and get her, y/n”.

You walk inside the station and take the steps to the top floor until you reach Lin’s door. You try to be quiet not to set any alarm, but it seems to just as quiet and once you reach your office floor it’s surprising empty. Seems like all the officers have left probably tired from the mess from UnaVaatu all except for the silver of light on the bottom opening of the door and you step up knocking gently. You hear Lin grunts in response giving you the indication for you to come in and you step in not saying a word then closing the door after you.

“What is it?” she asks not looking up from reading her papers and you smile “are you just going to stand there and not say anything, what are you de--” she looks up and her eyes widen, and you smile “this wasn’t the welcome I was hoping for but” you drop your bags. Lin quickly stands up from her chair and walks around her desk walking over to you. “I tried radioing, but Bolin messed around with it and we couldn’t get it working again I--…”as she presses her lips on yours, kissing you. You bring your hands up and put them on her waist kissing her back,

“we’re still in the office, Lin…” you mumble against her lips

“shh…just kiss me” she mumbles back. You smile wide against her lips as you start wrapping your arms around her pulling her close to you, after a couple minutes you slowly pull back

“I should leave to fight evil chiefs more often” you smile biting your lip and Lin rolls her eyes and smiles her thumb running along your jaw

“don’t you dare” you both lean back in and kiss each other. Lin couldn’t believe you were standing in front of her right now. She needed to make sure you weren’t a figment of her sleep deprived imagination, but once she felt your lips it was like she was awaken by the strongest caffeinated tea. She didn’t know if you guys would be able to save the world, but she knew she was worried about whether or not you were okay or even alive. It was at this moment Lin knew that she couldn’t hide her feelings for you. She couldn’t wait anymore.

*

Once you got to Lin’s bed and waited for her to finish getting ready for bed, you were expecting the normal routine of talking as you hold her and caress her. Lin was taking longer than usual but you paid no mind and you at the ceiling as you relaxed taking in the noise around you. The bathroom door opens, and you feel Lin sit down on her usual side,

“everythh-“ you look over and your mind stops working as you see Lin in a silk emerald with black lace nightgown. She usually wears something similar, a silk pajama set but this. You try to speak your cheeks blushing hard

“you..” a clear of your throat

“You are so beautiful—I mean you’re beautiful in anything you wear--How did I get so lucky” you ramble about which causes Lin to laugh and you join her laughing softly. You sit up and start leaning over to Lin cupping her cheek as your lips brush along hers. The kiss started off slow and sensual and it went on for a minute before you wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her down to bed. You make your way between her legs and your hands slowly run up her thighs making the end of her nightgown ride up to her waist and scoot her down lower on the bed. You smirk as Lin gasps by the rapid movement your hands running down to her ass. You kiss down her jaw then neck, Lin moans softly at your touch tilting her head back. Your mouth continues tracing along her shoulder, her neck, her jawbefore returning to her lips and go into a passionate kiss. Lin runs her hand up and grips onto your hair and the other on your back gripping your tank and starts pulling it up and starts taking it off tossing it aside. Lina presses her hand on your chest and starts to smirk and you wonder what she is thinking until she pushes you over on the bed. Getting you to lay on your back as she straddles you.

Lin looks down at you as she starts removing her nightgown revealing her naked chest she’s only left in her panties. You suck in the air through your teeth at the sight on top of you Lin runs a hand up your abdomen to your chest as she leans down. “Is this what you imagined it happening” she whispers, and you bite your lip and shake your head “it’s far better” you respond back and look at Lin “are you sure?” you run your hands on her thighs and run them up her sides as she looks down at your eyes now darkened full of lust and desire for her and she nods giving you a kiss and verbal consent “yes”. You kiss her back. running your hand up her back then pull her down onto the bed slowly getting on top of her and start leaving a trail of kisses down her chest and abdomen making your way down her body. You make sure to give every inch of her body the attention it deserves. Making your way down her inner thighs, Lin arches her back as she waits in anticipation every kiss from your lips intensifies on her skin, “y/n….please” she moans out. Removing the rest of each other’s clothes the remainder of the night was filled with moans, gasps, and exclamations. Both of you made sure how much you’ve missed each other when you were apart.

After cooling down, your smiling eyes met hers while you brushed a piece of her hair out of her flushed perspired face as you both laid naked in bed. The sheets tangled around your bodies, Lin had to turn away on her side- not because she was uncomfortable or felt any regret, but because she needed a break from what she was feeling, filled with newfound emotion... a love for you. She didn’t think she would feel this again. Especially not with someone younger, much younger than her. She felt you scoot over and spoon her putting your arm around her and kiss her shoulder as you stroke her arm while she strokes your hand. You softly mutter while the both of you start dozing off.

“Lin…”.

“hmm? “

“Please be mine”

“…I already am”


	17. Story Discussion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a little discussion page for notes or little ideas on what you guys liked.

So now that this story is over. I know it's sad.

I love to hear and read comments from you guys. So I would really like to ask **YOU GUYS,** as the Reader, on your thoughts about book 2. 

> Do you like your personality?
> 
> Did you like your background story?
> 
> Do you like the interactions/conversations with the LOK characters as well as the OCs?
> 
> Are you satisfied with the pace on the build between you and Lin? 
> 
> Which was your favorite scene/chapter in the story?
> 
> If there was something you would want to change about the reader. What about it be?

* * *

Overall, I just want to say thank you guys for your love and support for this little scene bending story. I am so surprised and it warms my heart with how much you guys liked this little fanfic idea of mine. it means a lot. 


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